图书图片
PDF
ePub

my own way of telling the facts of personal history. The time is not yet come for the philosophy of Whitefield's Life. It is, however, fast approaching; and, therefore, my mass of facts will soon be turned to good account by myself, or by some one. In the meantime, Whitefield will be known to the public; which he was not until now." The last sentence is not wholly correct. Whitefield has been known and justly known, for a long time, at least in the United States. Mr. Philip's book will deepen old impressions, rather than awaken any very important new ones. How the matter stands in England we do not know.

Still, we tender our acknowledgments to Mr. Philip for his work. Some new facts have been brought to light. Important contemporary biography and church history is introduced. The misrepresentations of Robert Southey are corrected. The balance is struck with much discrimination and fairness between Whitefield and Wesley and his brethren. The times in which Whitefield came upon the stage are correctly appreciated. Mr. Philip shows that he has a good acquaintance with this country, and is willing to judge fairly of its inhabitants. If he falls into error in respect to names and dates, if he does not always fully understand our congregationalism, our state of society, our modes of thinking and acting, we can readily pardon an Englishman and a stranger. These errors and misjudgments are, on the whole, remarkably few, and in general, unimpor

tant.

The book will be read, and it deserves to be. Every candid reader will pardon the alliterations of the style for the sake of the matter, and for the sake of the subject; and what a subject! shining as the brightness of the firmament forever and forever-casting many crowns at Jesus' feet. The memory of Whitefield will never die on earth. It will gloriously flourish throughout "Heaven's eternal year."

9.-Memoir of the Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy, who was murdered in defence of the Liberty of the Press, at Alton, Illinois, Nov. 7, 1837. By Joseph and Owen Lovejoy: with an Introduction, by John Quincy Adams. New York: John S. Taylor. It is but a few months since our minds were shocked by the report of the scenes of lawless violence at Alton. The community, high in its reputation for civil and social order, and even for christian philanthropy,-the victim, an accredited minister of the gospel, pursuing the work of an editor, with benevolent intentions, and, as he judged, in subordination to the laws of his country, the assaults, deliberate, repeated, rising in violence and malignity, until at length, consummated in murder ;-all these things conspire to render the catastrophe peculiarly mournful and ominous.

[blocks in formation]

A considerable portion of our readers, we apprehend, have been accustomed to think of Mr. Lovejoy, as one of those turbulent and obstinate spirits, whose influence is really beneficial to society only as it is modified and changed by the over-ruling and corrective wisdom of God. If individuals of this class will take the trouble to read this Memoir, we doubt not they will rise from the perusal, with materially different impressions of his character as a whole. He possessed the social sympathies in a high degree. His feelings were warm, his attachments tender and enduring. As a son, a husband, a father, he stands before us in an interesting light. His intellectual character was of a higher order than we had supposed. Many readers will close this volume with raised conceptions of Lovejoy as possessing the inspirations of poetry, as well as the pow er of wielding with much effect, the compact vigor of pointed and manly prose. His moral and religious character, and in respect to sincerity and piety, were such as will not fail to command the respect of reasonable men. Whatever may have been his errors in judgment, he had great sincerity and strength of purpose, and was calmly inflexible in prosecuting what he conscientiously deemed the course of duty.

His brothers, the compilers of this memoir, though laboring under some disadvantages, have, in the main, performed their work with judgment and skill. The volume is interesting and instructive. It is the record of one whose life, though brief, had been eminently useful, as well as singularly eventful.

9. Journal of an Exploring Tour beyond the Rocky Mountains, under the direction of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, performed in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837. Containing a description of the geography, geology, climate, and productions; the number, manners, and customs of the natives. With a map of Oregon Territory. By Rev. Samuel Parker. Ithaca, N. Y. 1838. pp. 371.

Mr. Parker set out upon his journey March 14, 1835, from Ithaca, N. Y. On the 7th of April, with his companion, Dr. Marcus Whitman, he started from St. Louis, Mo., in connection with a caravan of the American Fur Company. On the 10th of August, he thus describes the passage through the Rocky mountains. "Cold winds were felt from the snow-topped mountains to an uncomfortable degree. The passage through these mountains is in a valley, so gradual in the ascent and descent, that I should not have known that we were passing them, had it not been that as we advanced, the atmosphere gradually became cooler, and at length we found the perpetual snows upon our right hand and upon our left, elevated many thousand feet above us-in some places, ten thousand. The highest part of these mountains are found by measurement to be

eighteen thousand feet above the level of the sea. This valley was not discovered till some years since. Mr. Hunt and his party, more than twenty years ago, went near it, but did not find it, though in search of some favorable passage. It varies in width from five to twenty miles; and following its course, the distance through the mountains is about eighty miles, or four days' journey. Though there are some elevations and depressions in this valley, yet, comparatively speaking, it is level. There would be no difficulty in the way of constructing a rail road from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean; and, probably, the time may not be very far distant, when trips will be made across the continent," etc. This is truly a remarkable discovery. If the facts should prove to be, as they appear from Mr. Parker's description, it is one of the most extraordinary provisions for the convenience of man ever made in the Providence of God in the solid frame-work of the globe. We could have wished that Mr. Parker had gone into full details and given us an exact account of the whole of this road excavated by the finger of God.

Mr. Parker pursued his journey among the mountains, stopping at various places, holding consultation with the Indians, and collecting various information, till he reached the mouth of the Columbia river. On the 28th of June, 1836, he embarked for the Sandwich Islands, and in sixteen days anchored in the roads of Honolulu. He reached New London, Ct. on the 18th of May, 1837.

A great variety of interesting information will be found in the volume. There is an air of honesty and entire trustworthiness about all the statements. But little, comparatively, is mentioned but what fell under the author's own observation. Mr. Parker seems to have had quite a tact for working his way among Indians, hunters, trappers, half-breeds and the heterogeneous multitude with whom he came in contact. Many of the Indians seem waiting for the gospel of Christ, and are ardently desiring teachers to be sent to them. The style of the volume is simple and unadorned. There is an occasional use of language which will be called cant by some persons. A part of it, as where the author speaks of his own religious feelings, might have been well spared. In one place, Mr. Parker makes use of obliviscited; we know not in what vocabulary he found the term.

10.-Home Education. By the author of Natural History of Enthusiasm. London: Jackson & Walford, 1838. pp. 379.

So far as we have had opportunity to peruse this book, its views meet with our cordial approbation. The author does not appear as a profound reasoner, a curious speculatist, an investigator of christian antiquities, but as a practical man, explaining the principles by which he is guided in the education of his own children. Much of it is, however, in the author's peculiar and original manner. After some observations in regard to home economy in general, he introduces

the subject of a systematic culture of the mind, by suggesting some methods for eliciting, and for enriching, those faculties that are passive, and recipient chiefly, and which, as they are developed early, demand the teacher's attention before the time when any strenuous labors ought to be exacted from children. Mr. Taylor does not decide in favor of an exclusive system of Home Education. Great benefits attach to School Discipline, whether effected on a larger or smaller scale. Whatever may be said of female education, that of boys could not, in the majority of instances, be well conducted beneath the paternal roof. Still, the author thinks that home education, if the principles and methods proper to it are well understood, is both practicable and preferable in more instances than has been often supposed, and especially so for girls; and, also, that this system is susceptible of improvements, such as could not fail, if adopted to a considerable extent, very sensibly to promote the moral and intellectual advancement of the community.

The distinguishing recommendations of private intellectual educa tion are 1. That the stress of the process may be made to rest upon sentiment and principle, and the deep reciprocal affections of the teacher and the taught, instead of its falling upon law, routine and mechanism. 2. That every thing, in method and matter, may be exactly adapted to the individual capacities and tastes of the learner, and the utmost advantage of culture secured for every special talent. 3. That it is, or may be, wholly exempt from the incumbrance and despotism of statutes, or of immemorial but irrational usages, or of prevalent notions, and may come altogether under the control of good sense, and is free to admit every good practice; and 4. That, while public education is necessarily a system of hastened development, private education is free to follow out the contrary principle of retarded development.

These and other considerations are urged in an effective and interesting manner. The whole, so far as we can judge, is a very enlightened, just and christian view of a most important subject.

12.-M. T. Ciceronis ad Quintum Fratrem Dialogi Tres De Oratore. Ex editionibus Oliveti et Ernesti. Accedunt Notae Anglicae. Cura C. K. Dillaway. A. M. Bostoniae: Perkins et Marvin, 1838. Tom. I. 226. II. 229.

We are glad to see that these unpretending and valuable labors of Mr. Dillaway are sufficiently appreciated by the public to permit him to proceed in his course. He has now in press one of the comedies of Terence. The series will probably combine a selection in three volumes from the works of Tacitus, one volume of Plautus, and the remaining works of Cicero in eight volumes. The succes sive volumes are printed with uncommon beauty and correctness. The notes are apposite and well adapted to the wants of the young student.

13.-Memoir of Mrs. Sarah Louisa Taylor: or an Illustration of the Work of the Holy Spirit, in awakening, renewing, and sanctifying the heart. By Lot Jones, A. M., Missionary in the city of New York, in charge of the Mission Church of the Epiphany. New York: John S. Taylor, 1838. pp. 324.

One of the reasons assigned by the author, for his having consented to compile this memoir, is "that he felt a deep interest in the subject, with a strong conviction, that, if suitably prepared, it could not fail to be useful." This conviction, we think, was well founded. It is an interesting and instructive exhibition of female character and piety; and if associations with purity and truth are suited to improve both the heart and the life, the circulation of such memoirs as this will not fail to exert a salutary though silent influence on the public mind.

ARTICLE XII.

LITERARY AND MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE.

United States.

Library of the New York Theological Seminary.

The Directors of the New York Theological Seminary, through the agency of Prof. Robinson and others, have recently purchased the Library of the Rev. Dr. Leander Van Ess of Bavaria in Germany, well known as the voluntary and successful agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society among the Roman Catholics of that country. This Library contains upwards of 13,000 volumes. Among which are most of the works of the Greek and Latin Fathers, the London and Paris Polyglots, Ugolini's Thesaurus, Mauri's Concilia, etc. etc. In the department of church history it is said to be quite full, and in all the departments, there are many works which are rare and of very high value. Dr. Van Ess has been forty years collecting this Library, and has now generously consented to dispose of it to an American Seminary for about one fifth part of its original cost to himself. The purchase is already made, and the books are probably now on their way to New York, where a commodious building is in the process of erection, and will be ready for the reception of the Library and for the other purposes of the Seminary early in the autumn. Such an accession to the stores of theological learning in our country is highly auspicious and creditable to the Institution which has thus early availed itself of its advantages.

« 上一页继续 »