ARTICLE VII.-NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

THEOLOGICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL.

THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE SCIENCES.*-This little tract will only be interesting to the most abstract of thinkers-those only who are accustomed to the highest and most attenuated generalizations. We shall neither attempt to expound nor to discuss the scheme here presented. It starts with an assumed definition of the law of relation, from which many might dissent, or with which many might be dissatisfied, as barren and unmeaning. As it proceeds to furnish a comprehensive definition of each class of sciences, by which the relative position of each in the scheme is determined, we are tempted at each stage of progress to inquire whether the definition is satisfactory. The whole scheme is ingeuious though plainly resting upon the author's peculiar metaphysical system.

The reasons for dissenting from the philosophy of Comte are satisfactory, so far as a single point of difference is concerned. They do not attempt, however, to establish any difference which is material to the interests of morals or theology. In all the conclusions which respect points of this kind, there is nothing to choose between the two systems of belief.

PRIMEVAL SYMBOLS.t-This beautifully printed and smoothly written book is an attempt to be wise above what is written, (or shall we say below or beneath what is written); begun and ended. from the point of view furnished by the "doctrine of correspondencies," as set forth by Emmanuel Swedenborg. It surpasses our comprehension to explain how a barrister at law, who has been "mathematical and ethical prizeman" in Trinity College, could

*The Classification of the Sciences: to which are added Reasons for Dissenting from the Philosophy of M. Comte. By HERBERT SPENCER. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1864. 12mo. pp. 48. New Haven: H. C. Peck.

+ Primeval Symbols; or, the Analogy of Creation and New Creation By WILLIAM FETHERSTON, Barrister at Law, &c., &c. Dublin: Hodges, Smith & Co. 1862. London: Trübner & Co.

ever bring himself to believe that so wide a range of theological and religious truth is set forth in the history of the seven days of the Creation. It must be that some things are only Swedenborgially discerned.

CHURCH ESSAYS.*-This little volume is written in an earnest Christian spirit, and with as much considerate recognition as could be expected for all those who "believe and call themselves Christians," who are so unhappy as not to adopt that form of church polity in which the Bishop is set over a Diocese and not over a single parish. The author is in that comfortably narrow state of mind which is appropriate to all such thinkers as he. His views of church history, of Christian theology, and of the Christian life, are all moulded and shaped after the pattern which seems inevitable to all who write from his point of view. The title is appropriate enough for his purpose. "Church Essays" seeming to intimate that the church, i. e. the Americo-Anglican church, is a term more precious than Christianity, and the liturgy of more practical significance than the New Testament. Apart from these features, these essays are quite above the range of our religious literature.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

MEMOIR OF MRS. KEITH.-The subject of this memoir was a native of New Hampshire, where she was born in 1821. She became, at the age of twenty, a teacher, and was employed for the greater part of the time from 1841 to 1849 in South Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky. In 1849, she went to China, to become a member of the Protestant Episcopal Mission in Shanghai. There, in 1854, she married one of the missionaries, Rev. Cleveland Keith. In 1862, her health had become so impaired that it was thought advisable that she should return with her husband to her native land. But disease had fastened itself upon her, and she lived only to reach San Francisco. A few days after her

*Church Essays. By GEORGE CUMMING MCWHORTER, author of a Popular Handbook of the New Testament." New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1864. 12mo. pp. 174. New Haven: H. C. Peck. Price $1.

+ Memoir of Mrs. Caroline P. Keith, Missionary of the Protestant Episcopal Edited by her brother, WILLIAM C. TENNEY. New York: 1864.

Church to China.

D. Appleton & Co.

12mo. pp. 392. New Haven: H. C. Peck. Price

$2.

death, her husband, on his way to New York, lost his life in the "Golden Gate," which was destroyed by fire.

This memoir of Mrs. Keith is made up almost entirely of her letters, which cover the whole period of her life from 1838 to 1862. Our limits will allow us only to point out, in the very briefest manner, several of the particulars which make the collection of special interest and value. The earlier letters, written when she was a teacher at the South, throw no little light on the growth among the Southern people of that sentiment of hostility to the North which culminated in the present rebellion; and, after reading her experiences, no one can wonder that she ever after hated the institution of slavery, as her brother expresses it, "with fiery indignation." The letters from Shanghai are particularly rich in information respecting all that pertains to the general missionary work in China, and also the particular work that the Episcopalians have undertaken. Some valuable information is given respecting the great Chinese rebellion, its origin, and its progress. The later letters, written as the first news of our struggle with the Southern traitors reached her, are full of expressions of the warmest sympathy with our national cause, and show with what intense interest the progress of the war is watched on missionary ground. But what seems to us especially noteworthy in the memoir, is the exhibition that is given of the progress of her religious convictions. With her parents, in early life, she had attended upon the ministry of a Congregational clergyman. Subsequently, in her school days, she was brought under other influences, and attended as a communicant the Unitarian church; but, at twenty-five, she became an Episcopalian. Her letters after this period, respecting "her church," written to her old friends of various ecclesiastical connections without the least sectarian spirit, express the high satisfaction and enjoyment she derives in conforming to its ritual, in a way that cannot but interest Christians of other denominations, who, though they have no sympathy with what is peculiar in her views, may profit by the example of her whole-hearted devotion.

We cannot forbear a single quotation of what Mrs. Keith has written in one of the letters respecting the worthlessness of what is said about missionaries and missionary operations by a well known modern traveler, whose shallowness is only surpassed by his high pretensions :

“SHANGHAI, July 20, 1854.

# * * Yesterday an article happened to catch my eye, commencing thus: 'Bayard Taylor, writing from Calcutta, says: "There are two schools here, under the charge of the Scotch Church. Neither of them, I believe, ever has made a single convert." The editor of the paper making this extract gives, below the quotation, a letter from the teachers of the schools to a minister in Scotland, written in answer to some inquiries, in which it is stated that these schools have furnished several preachers, some of whom are very acceptable even to English congregations; others are usefully and honorably employed, and in all the higher classes of the schools are baptized boys. These are the people who go home, and say: 'Oh! we have been on the spot; we have seen; we heard those who lived there for years, and they all say so,' &c., &c. I would risk thousands (were I in the habit of betting) that they had never conversed with a missionary half an hour under a missionary's roof. This same B. T. was here, and at Nankin, a year ago last April, and, in company with the officers of the ships of war, called here once, stared at us as at some wild things, said nothing, and went away. Now, what would his testimony be worth, should he send home a paragraph saying he had heard of no success, and he had visited the missionary establishments, and that those persons seemed to be living very much at their ease ?"

LEGAL.

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW.*-We are glad to see this excellent manual by President Woolsey in a second edition. Though modest in its pretensions, it embodies the results of thorough reading and research, and of discriminating judgment. It has not only been approved as an excellent text-book for instructors, but as a convenient and trustworthy book of reference for students of political and general history.

This edition is considerably enlarged from the preceding, and one or two important portions, as the Appendix,-containing the history of the most important treaties since the Reformation,have been greatly improved at the expense of laborious research. The style is clear; the learning is ample for the beginner and the general student; the acquaintance with general history is broad and liberal, and the sense of justice and the faith in ethical and Christian progress are everywhere conspicuous.

The Preface concludes as follows: "May the war end speedilyif possible, before these words shall appear in print,-but not

* Introduction to the Study of International Law, designed as an aid in teaching, and in historical studies. By THEODORE D. WOOLSEY, President of Yale College. Second edition, revised and enlarged. New York: Charles Scribner. 1864. 8vo. pp. 441. New Haven: Judd & White. Price $3.50.

without the destruction of slavery, the Union of the States on a basis of justice, and the observance of the rules of international law in the intercourse between all other nations and our republic."

ANCIENT LAW.*-No more interesting questions present themselves to a reflecting mind, whether it be the mind of a student of law or a student of general history, than the following:-"What were the beginnings of that vast number of conceptions and terms, of rules and provisions, of usages and institutions, which pertain to what we designate by that briefest of terms-the Law ?" "In what way did man first rudely provide for those necessities of his social condition and his possible developments, to meet which, in his more complicated relations and his actual progress, there has been ever growing and never completed, that most consummate work of human intellects, the jurisprudence of modern times?" "How far can history furnish the data of recorded facts to answer these inquiries?" "How far do literature and the speculative sciences enable us to interpret history ?" "How far can conjecture supply with reasonable certainty satisfactory theories, when history fails to furnish facts?" These questions it is the design of this admirable volume to answer. It is one of the first attempts by an English author to discuss this subject on the principles of a broad philosophy, and one need but read a few pages to feel and acknowledge that he has treated it well. The style is singularly clear and condensed. The generalizations are broad, but never vaguely conceived, or indistinctly expressed. The illustrations are abundant, but they do not in the least overload the matter or distract the attention. We are greatly mistaken if this does not prove a very attractive volume to a very large class, both of professional and non-professional readers.

The introduction of sixty-nine pages, by the very eminent and successful Professor of Municipal Law in Columbia College, contains an abstract of the contents of the volume for the use of students, and adds greatly to the value of the American edition. The volume has also a copious index.

Ancient Law: Its Connection with the Early History of Society, and its Relation to Modern Ideas. By HENRY SUMNER MAINE, with an Introduction by THEODORE W. DWIGHT, LL. D., &c., &c. First American, from second London edition. New York: Charles Scribner. 1864. 8vo. pp. ix, 400. New Haven: Judd & White. Price $3.50.