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1. A Treatise on the Right of Suffrage, with an Appendix. SAMUEL JONES. Boston: 1842. Otis and Co. 12mo. pp. 274.

WE would that our author had reserved the first at least of his appendices (for there are two) to some future speculation, of a less severe character. As it is, it goes to discredit a solid work of argument, by mixing up fiction and vision with a severe philosophic practical question. Cutting off the poetry, therefore, of our author, we confine our attention to his sound, honest prose, and would willingly turn to it, also, the public attention, and of that, a larger share than our own present narrow limits here given to it would seem to indicate.

We hold, then, the work before us to be a bold and fearless assertion of unpalatable truth, on the most important of all political questions, namely, the right of suffrage, in its origin, tenure, and most advisable limits for the ends of good government. For the philosophic solution of these questions, our author says he has sought in vain in the works of the great masters of political wisdom; and we know not, for ourselves, where to direct his search. He claims for his work, therefore, somewhat of the interest and value of an original analysis. "If any treatise," says he, " on the right of suffrage has ever been published, in which its true principles have been examined and explained, the author has not been so fortunate as to meet with it. He has not been able to find any thing, unless it be some brief article, on the subject. He has, of course, been under the necessity of relying wholly upon the resources of his own mind unaided by the labor of others." — p. 23. Into this exclusive claim of originality, we will not enter. It is sufficient for the author's reputation, that he writes evidently from his own stores of thought, and, for the satisfaction of the public, that he writes soundly and ably.

But, as before hinted, our author's sentiments on these subjects are all unpopular — he swims not with the current; on the contrary, he is for dragging "up stream" our vessel of state, until she reaches again what he deems her only safe position, as well, being the original moorings where the Fathers of the Revolution cast anchor. How far such political achievement is now possible, or how far, if possible, it be either expedient or wise, are questions which we critics leave politicians to settle. What alone we concern ourselves with is, the truth of the principles involved in this reasoning; and here we cannot but stand at accord with the sentiments before us. Individual right of suffrage is not, as we think, among

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those natural unalienable rights of humanity, which stand as the necessary pillars of the social state. It is a right, political in its origin, not natural, held under the constitution of government, not superior to it, in subservience, therefore, to the ends of government, and not as in itself an end. These truths, we say, we hold, as our author does, to be fundamental and unquestionable, however foreign they may sound to the reasonings or language of demagogue politicians. But if these principles be once admitted, then the extension of the right of suffrage becomes a question of expediency, simply and purely, as bearing upon the great and real ends of government, to be esteemed but as part of the scaffolding for the erection of the temple of liberty, and not the temple itself. How wide-how narrow - how uniform in its provisions how near to universality in its extension, (which last is but the IDEAL the legislator is to keep in his eye, and not the PRACTICAL, from which he is to set out; these all, we say, are questions of prudence, arising out of fact, to be determined by circumstances, and having reference to the ever varying condition of a people as to education, morals, and the general diffusion of property. To uphold universal suffrage, without reference to these elements of its safety, to make it the point of departure in every political system, instead of its goal-the sine quâ non, without which there is no political liberty for a people, is the folly, the madness or the wickedness, (for into one or other of these moving elements it cannot but be resolved,) against which our author both boldly and ably argues; and we fear not, as patriots, to add our voice to his solemn protest. There is no question but that we, as a nation, have departed in this matter from the principles of our revolution, and from the authors of our federal and state constitutions. The vessel of state has dragged its anchors the current of unbridled democracy has swept it down stream. As we look back at the receding shores, we can see how, one by one, we have been swept past those landmarks which Washington, Jay, Hamilton, and Madison, once erected as our permanent beacon-lights. This, at least, as fact, is undeniable, and as undeniable is its cause. It has been through the fallacy of regarding suffrage as a natural right—one to be claimed not granted, and therefore not to be withheld, without manifest injustice, from any single individual within our wide territorial limit be he drunk or sober, -native or foreigner - ignorant or instructed — with or without a stake in the fortunes of the country. To this point we have come. That rulers thus elected should, by degrees, truly represent their electors, morally and intellectually as well as legally, is of course a natural necessary consequence; and that the nation is now suffering under it, both in its interest at home and in its good fame abroad, is a result rather lamentable than wonderful, a fact too open to be denied, and yet too painful to dwell upon. We close, therefore, with reminding American citizens of the wisdom of an ancient apologue, slightly changed from that wherewith Socrates exposed

the equivalent Athenian folly of choosing magistrates by "lot." "A ship at sea, having lost its pilot, those on board deliberated on a successor; the wise and experienced seamen, those alone who were competent to judge, would have selected a skilful steersman for that station; but, under the popular outcry, that since the lives of all were equally embarked in the vessel, all had an equal right to vote; the vote was so taken, when, through the multitude of ignorant voters, it fell on one alike ignorant and obstinate, and the vessel was in consequence dashed upon the rocks." To every American we say "De te fabula narratur.”

2. Psychology, or Elements of a New System of Mental Philosophy, on the Basis of Consciousness and Common Sense. By S. S. SCHMUCKER, D. D., Professor of Christian Theology in the Theological Seminary, Gettysburg, Pa. New York: 1842. Harper and Brothers. 12mo., pp. 227.

THERE is much, it is said, in a title, and something, we confess, in this before us, not very taking. The proclamation of a NEW system of mental philosophy, reminds us always of D'Alembert's sceptical exclamation, "Decouvertes dans la metaphysique ! diable !!" but that such novelty should be made to rest on the basis of consciousness and common sense; that is, upon what all men, at all times, think and feel this, again, strikes us as something altogether absurd on the face of it; for how can that be new which, in the same breath, professes itself to be old, or peculiar to one man, which bases itself upon the common convictions of all. We will not add to this verbal criticism on the title of our author's work, any comment on that of his professorship, inasmuch as such title may not have been of his selection, though we confess that we mislike the one as fully as we do the other. Christian theology, to our mind, is either paralogism or neologism. Christian is either an epithet redundant, or a phrase sceptical. For ourselves, we confess that we know of no theology that is not Christian. But to the work itself.

The arrogant claim to novelty made in the title is fully carried out in the preface. The author professes to have drawn it all from his own stores. "He resolved," are its words, "to study exclusively his own mind," and for ten years he read " no book on this subject;" and now, "having travelled over the whole (!) ground," he presents to the public the following "outline of a system as in all its parts the result of original analytic induction."-p. 8. Now it belongs not, in our judgment, to every thinker, thus to venture to throw himself upon

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his own unaided resources in the search after intellectual truth. A Bacon or a Descartes, as they actually did, may do it, and the world will admire and follow them; but then it is because they dug deep and brought up to view much unknown truth. "Francis Bacon thought in this manner," is not the prologue for every metaphysical tyro. Nor can all afford to cast away, as Descartes did, the wisdom of all who had gone before him, and build up the temple of philosophy anew with a "Cogito, ergo sum." If any such there be in our days, Professor Schmucker, at least, is not, as we think, the man.

The truth is, we hold this work to be naught: what in it is true is not novel, and what is novel is not true. Nor is either truth adorned in it or error enlivened by either brilliancy of fancy or acuteness of thought. It is one of those works, in short, on which, as critics, we feel ourselves more peculiarly bound to speak forth fully our judgment, as being on a subject where the public at large are not competent judges. On many subjects readers are as good judges as professed critics, and there is no danger of mistake in the public assigning to the author and his work their fair rank. But in metaphysics it is otherwise, and the public we here hold to be gullible, and very apt to mistake novelty for genius and incomprehensibility for profundity. We protest, therefore, in the name of Plato and Aristotle, and of all American students of them, against all such jejune and superficial teaching as this before us, of the deepest and noblest of human sciences; and, above all, do we raise our voice against the introduction of this volume as a textbook into our learned seminaries. No, let them be taught to think, (for that, after all, is the great value of this reflex science,) and that by the great masters of human thought; let them learn to soar with Platoto analyse with Aristotle - to muse with Wordsworth or even to transcendentalize with Coleridge; and then will they learn something of their spiritual nature, and how best it may be awakened within them. Such are the masters demanded by the student in this science non cuivis libet." It is not every one that can lead the way in that dark path. Power of introspection, that rarest of all forms of genius, alone stamps the leader, and we know him by feeling that power in its mastery over our minds; we try him as the Jewish prophets did the idols of the land Yea, let them do good or let them do evil that we may know they are gods."

66

Now, in this judgment of the work before us, may deem us harsh and illiberal - we think not. sophy, we hold, is either gold or worthless dross. it admits not of mediocrity

some readers Mental philoLike poetry,

Of what class this specimen is, we have already indicated our opinion, and in closing our notice, would by a few brief extracts justify it. For Professor Schmucker's barbarous nomenclature take such needless coinage as "methodology," "memorizing," "ential," " duodicadal," etc., etc. For his philosophic classification of " entities," the following, namely, "solids, (!) liquids, (!) gases, (!) light, caloric, electric fluid, magnetic principle, space, number, time, mind, spirit, glorified bodies, (!) Deity."-p. 39. (Those who seek to know what Professor Schmucker can add to revelation on the subject of "glorified bodies," will find it treated of in connexion with the gases, at p. 50.)

For a specimen of acute analysis, the following may suffice, to which we take the liberty to append our notes of advancing admiration.

"Every idea of the speaker is succeeded by the following operations before it accomplishes its design:

"1. The idea of the speaker himself! (Quere

a bull.)

"2. The speaker's recollections of the idea of the sound formerly associated with that idea by himself!!

"3. His volition to articulate a similar sound!!!

"4. The articulating action of his organs on the expiring breath to produce a similar sound!!!!

5. The hearer's idea of the sound produced by the speaker's voice!!!!!

"6. The hearer's recollection of the similar sound which he himself has often made !!!!!!

"7. The recurrence of the idea which he formerly connected with the similar sound made by himself."!!!!!!! — p. 155.

Of such philosophy we can express our admiration but by the dominie's exclamation- "pro-di-gi-ous!" and only trust that there will be good sense enough in our schools and colleges, not to allow such solemn trifling to creep into their course of intellectual studies, under the imposing title of a new system of mental philosophy.

illustrative of By CHARLES New York:

3. Latin Grammar. Part II. An Introduction to Latin Prose Composition, with a Complete Course of Exercises all the important Principles of the Latin Syntax. ANTHON, LL.D., Professor etc., Columbia College. 1842. Harper and Brothers. 12mo. pp. 327.

ANOTHER able work from the pen of this indefatigable and prolific scholar. We know, indeed, of few names in our country more