went to Africa as a missionary; and, notwithstanding he has been led by circumstances which he may well regard as providential to become a successful discoverer in hitherto unexplored regions, and has added greatly to almost every department of knowledge, yet the immediate object of his labors has never been lost sight of; and he now values them chiefly as the means of promoting the great purpose contemplated in his missionary. efforts.

Mr. Livingstone has not forsaken nor turned aside from the object to which he had devoted himself, but has taken a broader and more comprehensive view of the means which may be employed for the accomplishment of his philanthropic purpose. He seems to have made a correct analysis of the elements of civilization. He appreciates the relations of science, commerce, and civilization, to Christianity.

It is this enlarged philosophy and just estimate of the several departments of human activity which commend his book and his labors to all, and render the action of the Royal Geographical Society, no less appropriate, in requesting him to give to the world a narrative of his travels, than that of the Directors of the London Missionary Society, who publicly expressed the same desire. It would have been equally appropriate, had merchants, and Boards of Trade, astronomers, geologists, lovers of natural history, statesmen, and the friends of freedom throughout the world, united in the request, as they will in thanking him for furnishing them with means of advancing the objects of the several departments of usefulness in which they are interested.

We cannot, in the space alloted us, give more than a very meagre synopsis of the work. Nor is it necessary. The book will be read, we venture to predict, more extensively than any work of the same size which has been published for years.

These travels and researches cover a space of sixteen years,from 1840 to 1856,—during which time he penetrated the country from Algoa Bay to Kuruman, the residence of the Rev. Robert Moffat, who has spent more than forty years as a missionary in that country, and is the author of an interesting and valuable work on South Africa. From Kuruman, (Lat 27°, Lon. 24°,) the farthest inland station of the London Missionary Society, he turned his attention to the north, and spent some time in the country of the Bakwains, a tribe of the Bechuauanas, studying their language, laws and customs.

In 1849, he discovered Lake Ngami, (Lat. 20°, Lon. 23°,) in 1851, the river Zambesi, flowing in the centre of the continent, and in 1852, returned to the Cape, to send his wife and children to England.

In the same year he started upon his last and longest journey

from Cape Town, retracing by nearly the same route, his way to the Makololo country, (Lat. 17°, Lon. 24°,) and thence taking a northwesterly course to St. Paul de Loanda, upon the western coast, (Lat. 7°, Lon. 13°.) From this point he proceeded by a southeasterly course across the continent to the mouths of the Zambesi, (Lat. 18°, Lon. 36°.)

During all these journeyings, performed by ox-power instead of steam, over parched deserts and wet prairies, and through primeval forests, surrounded by buffaloes, lions, and all the wild animals of that great menagerie of the word,-whether preaching to the natives, mending a cartwheel, felling trees to make way for the wagons, or administering medicine to the sick, his cheerful, Christian spirit surrounded him with a halo of light in that benighted region.

With a gentleness that never degenerated into effeminacy, a courage that contained no element of rashness, a fine enthusiasm which yet left his common sense and judgment intact, and a Christian zeal, the farthest possible removed from sectarian bigotry, he pursued his labors with that quiet energy which seems to have been inspired by a consciousness that he was contributing to the welfare of universal humanity. For reasons already given, this book should be in every library in the land, from Sabbath-school libraries to those of the most miscellaneous character.

2. The American Phonetic Dictionary of the English Language. Adapted to the present state of literature and science; with pronouncing vocabularies of Classical, Scriptural, and Geographical Names. Designed by Nathaniel Storrs. Compiled by Dan. S. Smalley. With a general introduction by A. J. Ellis, B. A. Cincinnati: Longley Brothers. 1855.

This work invites a discussion of the whole system of phonetic spelling and writing, including the use of the phonetic characters which have been assigned to the several elementary sounds of the human voice. In the brief space of a notice, however, we can do no more than call attention to what we may consider as an unquestionable convenience of the phonetic system. It is a matter in dispute, whether the convenience arising from the use of the phonetic alphabet and types would be sufficient to balance the evil of an innovation on the established method. It is enough to say, that whatever of prejudice exists against the phonetic system, applies wholly to the types and alphabetic characters. We leave this point entirely out of the present consideration. We desire to call attention to the phonetic method of analyzing and articulating words. There is, we hardly need say, a certain number of elementary sounds of speech; and

articulation, in every instance, is a particular combination of these sounds. This fact is the basis, we may better say the substance, of the phonetic system, and should not be confounded with phonotypy, or the art of printing by types or characters representing the sounds. Think what one may of phonotypy, there can be but one opinion as to the phonetic method of analyzing and articulating. We have had some experience of its application in this respect-an experience forced upon us by an official connection with the public schools. We hesitate not to say-though it is saying much-that without resort to the phonetic method, a correct articulation cannot be induced in any school; and we venture on the still more comprehensive statement that, with the use of this method, a correct articulation can hardly be avoided! Teach a pupil to analyze a word, and you thereby teach him to articulate it. The finding of the elementary sounds is the articulating of them; and it is this that constitutes accuracy of pronunciation. We need not say this much to teachers; for every teacher worthy of his place has experience of the fact. To those who have not been in the way of a similar experience, and who yet hold official relations to the schools, we will simply say that a few hours' application will remove all doubt on the subject. Pass from a school in which the phonetic analysis is not used, to one where it is used, and the contrast is sufficiently obvious. And experience has abundantly demonstrated that the safest and most expeditious access to correct reading and the established orthography, is the phonetic practice. We are personally knowing to the fact, that very many teachers who view the phonetic characters with disfavor, do nevertheless look upon phonetic analysis and articulation as indispensable to the prosperity of their schools.

Considered as a dictionary, the work before us is in all respects like that of Webster or Worcester (the pronunciation of the latter having a general preference), with the exception of the use of phonotypy for definitions and pronunciations. But this exception is of great importance. It is only the expert that can readily determine the pronunciation in all other dictionaries. But a reference to the Phonetic Dictionary makes it impossible to mistake on this essential point. The work is explicit and exhaustive on all the particulars usually embraced in the phonetic system. We commend it as above price in the matter of correct articulation and sure pronunciation. The typography, and general mechanical appearance are most excellent.

3. Biography of Elisha Kent Kane. By William Elder. Philadelphia: Childs & Peterson. 1858. 8vo. pp. 416.

This is no extemporaneous affair, got up to take advantage of

a popular excitement. It is not an attempt to sell over again the substance of the Arctic voyages. It is not a work that must depend for its pecuniary success on the merits of Dr. Kane's own volumes. We deem these explicit negatives called for, because of the temptation which a successful publisher is under, to make a paying book pay as many times as a change of dress and name can impose on a confiding public. This Biography of Dr. Kane is a genuine book, and is the production of one of the most accomplished writers in this country. Dr. Elder is a name already known to fame; and the nature of his reputation is sufficient assurance that whatever comes from his pen will at least be what it purposes to be.

The boyhood, education, early habits, and adventures which developed such a character as Elisha Kent Kane, can be of no ordinary cast. We have before seen the man, the great result; Dr. Elder now gives us the causes and the occasions. The Arctic explorer showed his heroic spirit in boyhood. The youth who at ten years of age made his way up the rain-spout of a barn to the roof, in order to chastise certain rude boys who from that lofty retreat" were amusing themselves by shooting putty-wads from blow-guns at the girls below," and who brought the lawless urchins to subjection, might have been expected to develope a heroic manhood. But we cannot particularize. We have only to say that the youth of Kane, in its day, is no less a matter of interest than his riper manhood; and thousands of readers will thank Dr. Elder and his enterprising publishers for a book of rare excellence both for the charm of its style and the intrinsic importance of its contents. The print and paper are the same as in the Arctic Explorations.

4. Aspirations of Nature. By I. T. Hecker. New York: James B. Kirker. 1857. pp. 360.

5. The Convert: or, Leaves from my Experience. By O. A. Brownson. New York: Edward Dunigan & Brothers. 1857. pp. 450.

Promising notices in our next issue-by which time we hope to be able to speak from a more thorough acquaintance with their contents we here give the titles of two books, which in different ways are designed to subserve the interests of the Catholic faith.

ART. VIII

An Historical Sketch of the Anglican Church.

IN the article on The Protestant Reformation of the Fourteenth Century, which appeared in the last number of this periodical, we gave a sketch of the earliest decided outbreak against the spiritual pretensions of the Roman Catholic Church. We now propose to take up the general subject where that article left it, and present an historical statement of that specific branch and form of protestantism, which found an embodyment in the Epis copal or Anglican Church; and in carrying out this purpose we shall give especial prominence to the circumstances which attended the origin, the completion, and establishment of this church-our limits not permitting us to trace its career in the long period subsequent to its permanent establishment as integral in the English nation.

In the outset of our labor we must make the distinction -which the reference to our former article impliesbetween the frame-work of the Anglican Church and its more precious substance of religious reform. The causes which led to the one result were wholly dissimilar to the causes which led to the other. The system of doctrine and ceremony which made the first outward structure of the Anglican Church, was purely a work of diplomacy, and had its immediate origin in the policy of king Henry the Eighth, the ingenuity of his ecclesiastical servants, and the obsequiousness of his parliament. The essential reli gious reformation-the popular protest against the Roman Catholic Church-the ideas, convictions and impulses which were the life and substance of the protestantism which the new ecclesiastical polity partially asserted,all these were the development of causes which had been at work for centuries-causes which it would be a gross mistake to identify with the policy of the English king, or the diplomatic and compromising skill of his ecclesiastics and statesmen. The new church polity was but the casket, which we may almost say-and as further on will more particularly appear-accidentally enclosed the gem of a religious reform. The casket was an

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