This is a utilitarian age; though, according to Mr. Sewell, none but shallow-minded people deal with practical questions. Making tea, however, especially where the genius loci precludes all hope of finding any one to make it for you, is a practical question of no small importance to English people who study comfort; and therefore we think we do well to recommend Mrs. Ellis's book, at first setting out, on the ground of its utility. She can do something more than "babble of green fields," and rave in superlatives and hyperbolicals about mountain majesty; but she can describe scenery also, when occasion requires, and do it well. She is peculiarly happy also in her mode of interspersing historical reminiscences and associations; and there is a great deal more, in consequence, to be learnt from her book than what the authoress did, or what the authoress felt. We would particularly instance her notices of Marguerite de Valais, Jeanne d'Albret, Catharine of Navarre, and the early nurture and education of Henry IV. In short, all that during one period of French history made the Bearnois classic ground, is grouped most agreeably in these pages, and imparts a more enduring and instructive interest than any mere descriptions, however vivid and imaginative, could possess. is the work devoid of anecdotes, few but choice, of distinguished living personages, among whom we were particularly pleased with the following of the present King of Sweden.

Nor

Amongst many other circumstances equally illustrative of the good feeling and good sense of Bernadotte, we are told that "he writes every year to the father of a gentleman in Pau, a letter of pure friendship, reminding him of the days when they were both boys at school together. He continues to extend to the relatives whom he has left behind him in his native land such tokens of remembrance as are best calculated to increase their happiness. Instead of drawing them away from the sphere of comfort and respectability to which they have been accustomed, or disturbing the even tenor of their lives by ambitious hopes, his benevolence flows back to the place of his birth, through various channels, it is true, but far more calculated to benefit the friend of his early years." (p. 164.) So far from attempting to conceal the obscurity of his origin, we saw, says Mrs. Ellis, the following inscription, on a marble tablet, fixed into the wall of a house not many paces from our residence :—

This, it must be admitted, is creditable in the highest degree,

and affords reason to hope that the profession of Protestantism by Bernadotte is somewhat more sincere than that of Romanism by his royal fellow-citizen, Henry IV., who was also born at Pau. Mrs. Ellis speaks (page 57) of a celebrated restaurateur, Tourné, who had attracted such a degree of excellence in his "establishment artistique," that a French gastronome exclaimed, in an ecstacy of enthusiasm," The city of Pau has produced but two great men, Henry IV., and Tourné." Into this illustrious society we may surely claim admission for Charles John as a third.

But the chief recommendation of this work is, as might be expected from the character of the authoress, the high tone of moral and religious feeling by which it is pervaded, which, without effort or affectation, is, as it ought to be, blended with the narrative. Mrs. Ellis is not serious and sentimental out of place. She does not, like many writers of the dissenting school, compose under the constraint of interspersing a certain proportion of matter strictly or constructively evangelical: her observations of this character seem to rise naturally from the scenery or objects which she is contemplating, and come, therefore, with double effect. We will close our citations with two passages of that character, which will exhibit the powers of the authoress in the higher departments of composition, and prove how well she is qualified to add to her native literature productions of a more enduring, if not more pleasing interest, than her "Recollections of the Pyrenees." It would be no easy task to parallel the beauty and delicacy of the passage which terminates the latter extract; and, rejoiced indeed should we be, if by those who travel such objects were regarded, and by those who wrote such feelings were expressed :

"On the evening of our arrival at Luz, we walked to the top of a little hill, crowned with the ruins of a hermitage, and jutting out into the valley, so as to command a view, not only of the entrance of the gorge through which we had passed, but of the two other defiles which terminate in the basin of Luzthat of Gavarnie, through which flow the foaming waters of the Gave,-and that of Baréges, presenting a less lovely aspect, from the dreadful ravages to which it is subject, when the winter floods have swollen the wilder and more furious Bastan, whose torrent mingles with the Gave in the valley of Luz. "Well might the hermit, if such a being did ever really occupy the rudely constructed building on this little hill, have sought this situation for its beauty and repose. Nothing I have ever seen or felt, or perhaps shall ever see and feel again, can surpass this lovely scene, for the perfect picture of peace presented by its evening aspect. If one requisite for the enjoyment of peace be a sense of security, we find it here in the majestic mountains rising on every hand, some to the height of six or seven thousand feet above the level of the verdant plain or hollow, which lies before you, extending to the distance of about two miles in length, and one in breadth. If in order to calm the stirrings of anxiety and apprehension, which the accustomed habits of the world have rendered a second nature, it is necessary for our peace, that we should see around us the industry of man, facilitating the produce of a fruitful soil, we have it here in more than ordinary perfection; for not only in the valley,

but far up the sides of these majestic mountains, at an altitude never reached by the cultivation of colder climes, are thousands of little barns and cottages, their white gables gleaming out from clumps of tufted wood; and villages, with their little rustic churches, sometimes half buried in the deep ravines; at others, standing out like fairy citadels, on the point of some bold promontory, which catches the beams of the declining sun. And then the rich deep woods with which some of the lateral hills are crowned, and the patches of different kinds of cultivation, extending to an almost miraculous height, all different in their tints, yet all blending into a beautiful mosaic, in perfect harmony with the colouring of a southern climate. If again, there is a craving in the human mind for something beyond what belongs to the bare notion of utility, a craving which perhaps destroys our peace more than all the actual necessities of life, for something to fill, and satisfy, and render perfect, the enjoyment of the spiritual part of our nature, we are surely brought nearest to it in a situation like this, when the mind is impressed with conceptions of the boundless power, and equally boundless beneficence of its Creator.

I am aware that this is not religion, and that the requirements of Christian duty may direct our steps to paths of a far different nature. I am aware, also, that difficult, or even ordinary and obscure as these paths may at first appear, He to whom all things are possible, may diffuse around them an attractiveness, and a beauty, as far surpassing all material excellence, as spiritual enjoyment is raised above that which belongs merely to the body; but I still think it has so pleased the Creator of the universe, to endow the mind of man with an intuitive sense of the loveliness and magnificence of nature-a sympathy which lets in the power of beauty, as it were a flood upon the soul: and I believe it is good that the spirit should be thus refreshed, and consistent with the wise purposes of God, that the hills, and the streams, and the verdant earth, and the fertility of the smiling landscape, with the calm of evening spread over it, should give us afresh to rejoice in his goodness, and to feel that there is such a thing as peace, even in this world, where the repose we are all in want of, is so often and so fatally destroyed by our own tumultuous passions."-(pp. 248-251.)

"Still, if the object of travel be to fill the mind with the contemplation of what is great and glorious in the works of the Creator, and the heart with feelings of contentment and repose, perhaps we succeeded in this object as completely as we could have done in any other way, by tracing out the shady paths that wind around the sides of the hills more immediately surrounding Luz, by watching the hay-makers at work in the valley, and by resigning ourselves to the dreamy silence, and the quiet beauty of these never-to-beforgotten scenes. I speak of the silence of this valley; for the perpetual murmur of its streams, is no interruption to that soul-felt stillness, which the language of poetry so often describes as silence. It is well for those who have youth and health to bear them on, or for those whose object is to tell of the many points of interest they have visited, to hurry on from place to place, and crowd a world of images into the recollection of a single day; but if the object is, as I confess it has often been with me, to thank God and be still, it is better to wander out alone, or with one quiet companion, to trace the herdsman's path, to sit down when weary, to converse with the peasants, to enter their cottages, to gather wild flowers, and to watch, without excitement or fatigue, the wonder-working process by which the beauty of each day is developed by the morning light, and folded back as it were, into the bosom of nature, with the dewy fall of every night.”—(pp. 257, 258.)

SHORT NOTICES.

THE REMNANT FOUND; or, the Place of Israel's Hiding Discovered. By the Rev. JACOB SAMUEL.

THE NESTORIANS; or, the Lost Tribes. By ASAHEL GRANT, M.D.

THE growing interest which the Church of Christ has taken of late years in the state and prospects of the Jews is one of the most remarkable features of the present times. No clearer token could be given us that "the time to favour Zion" is indeed near at hand. A more distinct mark of the same cheering truth is to be found in the renewed enquiries after the lost tribes of Israel. For a long time, whatever partial interest might have been felt towards the dispersed sons of Judah, the outcasts of Israel seem to have been nearly forgotten by Christians in general; but now it seems almost as if the predicted command had been given to them that are in darkness, "Shew yourselves." An intense interest has been aroused to search for these outcasts wherever they may be found, which appears a lively pledge that the time is indeed approaching and near at hand, when "all Israel shall be saved."

The two works before us are devoted to this object of ascertaining the present condition of the Ten Tribes. Both agree in searching for them, in or near the site of their first captivity. Mr. Samuel thinks that they are to be found in the Jews of Daghistan, on the north west of the Caspian. He adduces several striking features of their customs and observances, which distinguish them from the Jews in general, and seem to correspond with what might be expected in the captivity of Israel.

The work of Dr. Grant is of still higher interest. It consists of three parts, the first of which is a personal narrative of his intercourse with the Nestorian Christians, with a view to the establishment of an American mission. The second part contains evidence of their Israelitish origin, and the third some discussions upon the prophecies of the apocalypse in the same connection. The details brought forward at length in the second part have a peculiar and uncommon interest, and we see not how it is possible to resist the conclusion that the Nestorian, or as they call themselves, Nazarean Christians, of Adiabene, are indeed descendants of the ten tribes, who were converted in the apostolic age on the

very site of their first captivity. So far the conclusions drawn by Dr. Grant seem warranted by very full and convincing evidence. And certainly, however remote, in one aspect, from the general impression prevailing in the Church, they open to our view an impressive field of meditation upon the deep counsels of God.

We cannot, however, resist the conviction that the mystery which attaches to these lost tribes is still very partially unravelled, and that further discoveries will be made in the Time of the End, beside that which the present works convey. The early tradition, recorded in the Apocrypha, of a further migration eastward, seems not at all improbable; and till the cloud of darkness is removed which still hangs over the first peopling of the western continent, it is not perhaps an unreasonable flight of speculative fancy, to suppose that in America the tide of civilization has overtaken some of the outcasts from the first covenant in their farthest wanderings. The wisdom of God will doubtless, before long, unseal some of these hidden mysteries of His providence, and display to us fresh heights and depths of wonder in the counsels of His redeeming love. In the meantime these works, especially the second, are valuable contributions to our knowledge of this interesting subject.

Besides the interest which attaches to Dr. Grant's researches, from the light which they throw upon the probable history of the Ten Tribes, they are certainly a valuable addition to our knowledge of Central Asia, and of the Eastern Churches. At a time when our own Church has such encouraging prospects of extension in the Levant, and on the side of Palestine, all information of this kind is more than commonly important. We hope that many will read and examine for themselves the remarkable facts which are here brought before them.