witnessings of truth. Its arguments are logically arranged, and clearly and closely reasoned. The plan and structure are so symmetrical, that it is difficult to adduce any concise extract as a satisfactory specimen of its style and spirit. The following sentences occur in the course of a forcible exposition of the "Morality of the Gospel." "Beneficence was a stranger to polytheism. Classic antiquity had no schools for the poor, no hospitals for the diseased, no Howard for the prison-houses. She left to heartless avarice, steeled even against parental and filial ties, the lives of her helpless infants and her aged. Her favourite recreations were gladiatorial murders. If she visited distant climes it was to slaughter the doomed inhabitants, or make them slaves. With the mighty hope of renovating a fallen race her bosom never glowed.

"The Gospel commands us to overcome the world. The conquest enjoined is not like that to which Napoleon aspired, and which the son of Philip achieved. The world to be conquered is the little world within ourselves. Such victory is more illustrious than was ever accomplished by 'garments rolled in blood.' 'He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city. It was an adage of lettered antiquity, that a good man struggling with adverse fortune was a spectacle recreating even to the gods. But man's most glorious achievement is the mastery of himself. He who, by divine grace, can successfully say to the stormy passions of his own soul, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed,'-is an object upon whom not the false gods of polytheism, but the Jehovah of the Bible, can look down with complacency."

The second chapter, devoted to the subject of the "Promulgation of the Gospel," opens with a powerful analysis of the motives of an infidel writer.

"Had his candour equalled his capacity, Edward Gibbon would have stood almost at the head of uninspired historians. His imagination was powerful, his intellect comprehensive, his memory retentive, his industry untiring. His History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,' occupied twenty years of the meridian of his life. It is, perhaps, the most erudite of historical compositions. Its author was master alike of the treasures of secular and of ecclesiastical learning. His great work reached back to the birth of our Saviour, and downward almost to the era of the Reformation. Christianity met him at every stage of his progress along the track of time. No writer, lay or clerical, ever possessed a more thorough knowledge than he did, of the circumstances attending the rise and spread of our holy religion. He was moved to a searching exploration of its primitive annals, by a motive not common to literary men. Though wearing the mask of friendship to the Gospel, he hated it with the most perfect hatred. He could 'smile and murder while he smiled.' How little did it become the dignity of the historian and the philosopher to substitute for the sword of the honourable combatant the stiletto of the muffled assassin!

"Had there been any defect in the foundations of the Christian superstructure-had not Jesus Christ been a real personage, crucified at Jerusalem in the reign of Tiberius, by the sentence of Pontius Pilate-had not the books composing the New Testament been actually published at the time they purport to have been published, -the inquisitive and vindictive infidel would have detected and exposed the imposture to the contempt and execration of mankind. If anything impugning the scriptural narratives could have been gleaned from contemporaneous history, or from any Jewish or heathen writings whatsoever, his never-sleeping rancour would have discovered and proclaimed it to the four winds of heaven."

In the volume before us, the force of a ruling intellect and the conclusions of a long life are embodied. The research and studious toil that it evinces were prompted neither by self-interest nor thirst of fame. The applause of the multitude, to a man occupying the eminent position of the learned author, can have little novelty, and less value. Bearing the ripened wisdom of more than three

score years and ten, such echoes are as the spent billow breaking at the feet of one who, in the words of a poet,

"Walks thoughtful on the silent, solemn shore Of that vast ocean he must sail so soon."

We welcome this able, eloquent vindication of the truth of our Holy Gospel, wherein is our hope. We commend it to the popular mind, a desire for whose highest good was the element that gave it birth. We thank the distinguished jurist, who might so easily have taken from the wide range of science or the familiar archives of history, a theme more in accordance with the taste and spirit of a mercurial age, but who chose rather to devote the concentrated lights of experience to the elucidation of the "Law and the Testimony," and to lay the laurels of a laborious and honoured life at the foot of the Cross.

CRUISING IN THE LAST WAR. By Charles J. Peterson. Peterson is one of our best writers of historical fiction. His delineations are true to history, and at the same time have that dramatic character which takes effectual hold of the imagination. "Cruising in the Last War" was published some years since in Graham's Magazine, where it had a successful run. In its present more permanent and improved form, it will no doubt have a still more abundant success. For sale by T. B. Peterson.

MILMAN'S GIBBON'S ROME. Phillips, Sampson & Co. of Boston, continue to issue at stated intervals the successive volumes of this standard work. Vols. IV., V., and VI. have been received from Peterson, who keeps all of Phillips and Sampson's publications.

THE HISTORY OF PENDENNIS. This work thus far has the reputation of being Mr. Thackeray's most successful effort, being generally pronounced decidedly superior to "Vanity Fair." It is to be completed in seven numbers, and has already reached the fifth. Published by Harpers. Price 25 cents each number, and for sale by Dewitt & Davenport, New York.

GIBBON'S ROME. Harpers Edition. We have referred already to this neat, convenient, and very cheap edition of Gibbon. Let not those of our readers who have not seen the book, infer from the word which we have italicized, that it is like the books ordinarily sold under the name of "cheap literature." On the contrary, while handsome enough for a dear book, it is the cheapest book now to be had in the market,-as cheap, almost, as Sartain's Magazine!

BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE. Blackwood in these days seems to be given up, soul and body, to the demolishing of "Free Trade." We expect it, of course, to maintain ultratory principles so far as it deals in politics at all. But at present it deals in little else. At least four-fifths of the last number are violent political articles. The new Dics Boreales, however, from old Christopher, are of themselves worth the price of the book. Lord Palmerston's Greek policy is assailed with great bitterness, both in a regular essay on the subject, and in a biting satirical poem entitled "The Modern Argonauts." For sale by Zieber, Philadel phia.

CARLYLE'S LATTER-DAY PAMPHLETS. Number V. of this curious series of essays is entitled "Stump-Orator." Mr. Carlyle seems to want everybody (qu.-himself included?) to stop talking and writing, and to cram with ideas, avoiding, as the plague, all expression of one's thoughts either by tongue or pen. If everybody's thoughts were as vague and misty as those of the "Latter-day Pamphlets," we should say Amen to this advice.

THE BOSTON MELODEON. By B. F. Baker & L. H. Southard. Boston: Elias Howe. The remarkable success of the first and second volumes of the Melodeon is perhaps the best guarantee of the character of the third. This volume is a collection of secular melodies, one hundred and twenty in number, consisting of songs, glees, rounds, catches, &c., arranged and harmonized for four voices. Price $1 00.

SIX MONTHS IN THE GOLD MINES. By E. Gould Buffum.

Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard. 172 pp. 12mo. Paper covers-Price 50 cents. Mr. Buffum, formerly connected with the New York press, has been a resident of California for three years. He was lieutenant in Col. Stevenson's regiment of New York State Volunteers, who sailed for California on the 26th of September, 1846, under orders from the Secretary of War. The detachment to which he belonged was disbanded in September, 1848, when to a man, they set out for the placers. Mr. Buffum is still there, but he has sent home his notes of "Six Months in the Gold Mines." These notes do not aim at the niceties of logic or rhetoric, but give additional and valuable information to those who seek it respecting this most wonderful region.

THE MINER'S DAUGHTERS is the title of a very beautiful tale by William Howitt, published in Dickens's "Household Words," and republished in pamphlet form by Dewitt & Davenport of New York. Price 6 cents.

STORIES FROM HOUSEHOLD WORDS. Stringer & Townsend of New York have commenced reprinting the stories from Dickens's "Household Words." The Miner's Daughters. and Loaded Dice have been received. Price 12 cents. For sale by Zieber.

THREE STRONG MEN. By Alexander Dumas; translated by Fayette Robinson. New York: Dewitt & Davenport. Any work emanating from Dumas must possess power. The present work is said to be one of peculiar interest.

WESTMINSTER REVIEW. This, if not the ablest of the foreign Reviews, is the one most generally acceptable to Americans, because of its very evident republican tendencies. The articles in the last number are Theory of Beauty, Persian Inscriptions and Ballads, The Liberty of Rome, The Industrial Exhibition of 1851, Equity Reform, Poems of Ebenezer Elliott, Junction of the Atlantic and Pacific, Relief Measures, The Church of England, Critical and Miscellaneous Notices, &c., &c. Published by Leonard Scott & Co., New York, and for sale by Zieber, Philadelphia, who keeps all of Scott's republications.

HINTS TOWARDS REFORMS. By Horace Greeley. New York: Harpers. 400 pp. 12mo. Mr. Greeley's opinions and his manner of enforcing them are so widely known through the columns of his own paper, The Tribune, that it would seem superfluous to attempt an exposition of them here. His name and style and sentiments are so familiar that we could hardly believe the statement in his preface, that this is his first appearance as the author of a book. The readers of his book will recognise at once all the qualities which so distinguish him as a magazinist and an editor. He is ever earnest, ever forcible, a lover of truth more than of beauty, who aims to be understood rather than to be admired, who never sacrifices facts for the sake of rhetorical flourish, or blinks an opinion because it is odious. The book is made up chiefly of lectures delivered before popular lyceums, and other similar associations. There are also some essays collected from the columns of the Tribune, and from other periodicals. The doctrines inculcated in these essays and lectures are thus summed up by the author himself;-" that every human being is morally bound, by a law of our social condition, to leave the world somewhat better for his having lived in it-that no one able to earn bread has any moral right to eat without earning it-that the obligation to be industrious and useful is not invalidated by the possession of wealth, nor by the generosity of wealthy relatives-that useful doing in any capacity or vocation is honourable and noble, while idleness and prodigality, in whatever stations of life, are base and contemptible-that every one willing to work has a clear social and moral right to the opportunity to labour and to secure the fair recompense of such labour, which society cannot deny him without injustice -and, finally, that these truths demand and predict a comprehensive Social Reform, based upon, and moulded by their dictates."

BYRNE'S DICTIONARY of Mechanics, Engine-work, and Engineering. Appletons. No. XI. of this excellent and useful work has been received from the publishers.

NINEVEH, MESOPOTAMIA, SYRIA, AND ASSYRIA. By the Rev. J. P. Fletcher. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard. 1 vol. 12mo.366 pp. Nineveh is at this time the California of antiquaries. The mouldering ruins along the banks of the Euphrates are explored with a zeal scarcely inferior to that with which the gold-digger delves among the hills and streams around San Francisco. Mr. Layard's books, so far from sating, have only excited the public appetite for more upon the same absorbing subject. Among the latest and not the least interesting is the work just quoted. Mr. Fletcher writes in a very kindly spirit towards the unfortunate Nestorian and Jacobite Christians, so cruelly massacred by the Kurds, and the influence of his book will be to create for these Oriental Churches a livelier sympathy among the churches of Great Britain and

America.

ERMAN'S TRAVELS IN SIBERIA. Translated from the German by W. D. Cooley, Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard. 2 vols. 12mo. pp. 371, 400. Adolph Erman, the author of these volumes, is one of that illustrious corps of scientific travellers of which Humboldt is the head. There is indeed one point in which Erman may with special propriety be named in connexion with his distinguished countryman. The labours of the former in exploring and making known the wonders of the polar regions must be now accepted as a suitable and necessary supplement to Humboldt's account of the regions around the Equator. Erman's travels are in truth a philosophical survey-and the only one we have of the great northern circumpolar regions. His book contains much and various information of a commercial nature, as in the chapters relating to the trade carried on from the frontiers of Siberia to Bokhara, the fisheries of the Obi, the mineral riches of the Ural, the fossil ivory in the valley of the Lena, &c. Among the scientific matters brought to light may be named the discovery of a Siberian magnetic pole, the decrease of the atmospheric pressure, as indicated by the barometer, towards Okhotsk, &c.

CARPENTER ON ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard. 8vo. pp. 204. This powerful essay is the result of a splendid prize of one hundred guineas offered last year by some friend of temperance in Great Britain, for the best dissertation on the use of alcoholic liquors in health and disease. Dr. Carpenter, the successful competitor, is a professor in the University of London, and the author of a work on "Human Physiology." The prize was awarded by a committee of some of the most eminent physicians in England. The essay is written in a temperate spirit, by one in the character of an inquirer rather than of a partisan, but is not wanting in emphasis upon the vital principles of the Temperance movement. The friends of that cause will find it a valuable addition to their available means for influencing the popular mind.

GOBAT'S ABYSSINIA. Journal of Three Years' Residence in Abyssinia. By the Rev. Samuel Gobat. New York: M. W. Dodd. 1 vol. 12mo. 480 pp. With a Portrait. Mr. Gobat, now Bishop of Jerusalem, and for several years previous a missionary in Abyssinia, is well known throughout the Christian world for his extraordinary talents and his equally remarkable zeal and humility as a teacher of the gentiles. In the opinion of Dr. Baird-a judge every way competent-Mr. Gobat is quite equal in his way to Henry Martin, the great pioneer of foreign missions. The present volume contains Mr. Gobat's journal of his residence and missionary labours among the Abyssinians, translated by the Rev. Sereno D. Clark, with a biographical memoir of Mr. Gobat by Dr. Baird. It is printed in beautiful style, and is in all respects a very acceptable offering to the reading public. For sale by J. W. Moore, Philadelphia.

SHAKESPEARE'S DRAMATIC WORKS. No. XVII. of this superb edition, including the play of" King John," and an engraving of " Constance" by Rice and Buttre, has been received from T. B. Peterson, who keeps all of Phillips d Sampson's publications.

to the "Trial by Jury," and, we must confess, we find our ideas not a little disturbed. The subject has been presented in a light quite new, and if the same amount of argument had been presented as argument, and apart from the witchery of a fascinating story, we know not how far we might have acquiesced in the author's deductions. As it is, we can only say, we are always glad to meet Mr. Cooper, either as a novelist, or as a political essayist, but we have no fancy for literary, any more than social, amalgamation.

POEMS BY H. LADD SPENCER. Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co. The publishers, in a prefatory note, inform us that "most of the poems in this collection were written in the days of the author's earliest childhood"-some in "his twelfth year, and many of the others at a period little less remote." This piece of information we take to be entirely gratuitous. One needs but to open the volume at random, to be assured of the fact here announced. The only wonder is that so much puerility should be sent into the world by one who has gone beyond his teens.

POEMS BY MARY SCRIMZEOUR WHITAKER. Charleston: John B. Nixon. Mrs. Whitaker is already favourably known to the public by her contributions to the leading magazines. The poems which have thus appeared from time to time, together with many entirely new, are now collected and presented to the public, in a neat duodecimo volume of three hundred pages.

ADVENTURES IN AFRICA. By Maj. W. C. Harris. Phila delphia: T. B. Peterson. 2 vols. 8vo; price $1 in paper covers. These volumes are the fruit of an exploring expedition sent into Abyssinia a few years since by the British Government, partly for commercial purposes, and partly for the promotion of science. The mission was accompanied by the learned Dr. Roth as naturalist, and by eminent linguists, draughtsmen, and others, whose contributions form a valuable appendix in relation to the Natural History, Botany, Geology, Language, Chronology, &c., of Abyssinia. The whole work is one of great interest.

HYMNS FOR SCHOOLS. By Charles D. Cleveland. New York: Mark H. Newman & Co. Mr. Cleveland having learned from experience the necessity of a collection of hymns made expressly for schools, set himself to the preparation of such a work, and offers the present volume as the fruit of his labours. No one can form an adequate opinion of a text-book without using it. We can only say in the present instance, that from a somewhat cursory examination of the book, we are much prepossessed in its favour. The author has shown great diligence in the collection, and has brought together a very agreeable variety of lyrical pieces, many of them of the highest order of merit. We feel disposed, however, to enter a caveat upon the alterations made in some of these compositions. We doubt exceedingly the propriety of such a proceeding in making any collection of the kind; and whenever such changes are made, the alteration should always be distinctly noted. Another fault which we have to find, not only with Mr. Cleveland, but with almost all collectors of sacred lyrics, is the omission of the names of the authors. The omission of the name is an act of injustice to the author, and deprives the reader of much valuable information, and oftentimes of a high gratification.

LETTERS OF A TRAVELLER. By William Cullen Bryant. New York: Putnam. The letters composing this beautiful volume have been written on various occasions and from various countries, during the last fifteen years. Many of these letters have already appeared in some other form. As now collected, they might well bear the name of "Miscellanies." The reader is treated to the observations and opinions of one of the great magnates of literature, on subjects of almost every kind and hue, and if he fails to be both instructed and delighted, may be assured that the fault is elsewhere than in the book. It is indeed one of the most delightful books of the season.

THE ELLIOTT FAMILY. By Charles Burdett. New York: Baker & Scribner. Mr. Burdett writes the present story with a view to show the trials and miseries of the New

York sempstresses. He is entitled to our thanks for having given his time and abilities to the exposition of this subject. It is a subject that interests, not New York only, but every large city. The compensation for this kind of female labour is utterly inadequate, nor is there any prospect of its becoming better until the public mind, roused from its lethargy by such writers as Mr. Burdett, shall address itself seriously to the task of reform. STANDISH THE PURITAN. By Eldred Grayson. New York: Harper & Brothers. We regret exceedingly our inability at present to do more than to announce this work. It is a tale of the American Revolution, by an author already favourably known by his contributions to the Knickerbocker.

TALBOT AND VERNON. New York: Baker & Scribner. We are in the same predicament in regard to this work as in regard to the former. It is a novel by an unknown hand, who, however, plainly knows well how to use the pen. The story has in view a special purpose-that of showing the validity of "circumstantial evidence." It is historical, including very recent events, such as the battles of Buena Vista and Monterey, and it aims to portray chiefly western life and manners. We are unable to express any further opinion in regard to its merits, not having been able to read the book. But the preface (which we have read) is one of more than common augury of good.

WOMAN'S WHIMS.

Translated from the French of Saintine by Fayette Robinson. Mr. R. thinks the French literature has been sadly misjudged, in consequence of the very bad samples of it which have been given to the American public. He proposes to correct the misapprehension by translating from authors of a purer character than those who, unfortunately, are almost the only ones known in the United States. "Woman's Whims" is offered as a sample.

OEHLSCHLAGER'S GERMAN DICTIONARY. Philadelphia: John Weik. Mr. Oehlschläger is one of the most successful teachers of modern languages in Philadelphia, where he has been constantly employed for a long number of years in teaching his native tongue, the German, to citizens of almost all classes and ages. This long and eminently successful practice has given him unusual advantages for the preparation of a pocket dictionary suited to the wants of learners. The work is, moreover, beautifully printed, and very convenient as to size and general arrangements.

MONTAIGNE; THE ENDLESS STUDY, ETC. By Alexander Vinet. New York: M. W. Dodd. 12mo. 430 pp. We like everything that we have seen in this book, except the titlepage, which is a perfect enigma. It should be called "Vinet's Miscellanies." That describes the book at once, as every title should do. Mr. Turnbull, the translator, and Mr. Dodd, the publisher, deserve the thanks and the substantial patronage of the public for making these admirable writings of Vinet accessible to American readers.

MOTHERS OF THE WISE AND GOOD. By Jabez Burns, D.D. Boston: Gould, Kendall & Lincoln. It seems to be generally admitted that mothers have more to do with the shaping of the human character than fathers have. Whether this be accounted for physiologically, or whether it results from the fact that mankind at their most ductile period, during infancy and childhood, are under the almost exclusive care of the mother, the fact in either case seems to be generally admitted. Almost all great men have had remarkable mothers. With a view to illustrate this fact, and to draw from it partial lessons for the use of the present race of women, Dr. Burns has collected in a neat volume of about three hundred pages, biographical notices of the mothers of many great and good men. The book is one of peculiar interest and value.

THE MERCERSBURG REVIEW. The articles in the July Number of this able Magazine are "Melancthon and the Present," "Ecclesiastical Tendencies," "Modern Ballads, English and Scotch," "Bible Christianity," "The Birthday