hearts and conduct of men. Whence came it? Was it a delusion? fanaticism? a new revelation? another person? Nothing of the kind. God in that memorable year converted Chalmers to the truth as it is in Jesus and brought him to experience its life-giving power, and henceforth he preaches not philosophy but Christ-not a gospel of negations and abstractions and dogmas and social virtues, but a gospel of inward love and faith and Divine power, teaching as its cardinal doctrines the radical and entire depravity of our nature and "the sinner's free gratuitous justification before God through faith in the imputed righteousness of Christ."

We know of no standpoint that commands a more interesting and instructive view of this great man than that which this volume affords. One cannot carefully follow so long a line of progress, and trace "the advancing footsteps of an intellect gifted with such superior power, and urged on by so simple and so strong a love of truth," and not be made himself wiser and better.

4.-Institutes of Theology, by the late THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D.,LL.D. Vol. I. and seventh of the series. New York: Harper & Brother, 1849.

INTELLECTUALLY considered, this is decidedly the most able and valuable volume of Chalmers' posthumous works. In the previous volumes we have contemplated him mainly in retirement, as a humble, spiritually-minded Christian, devoutly meditating on God's Word-the only exception being the last volume, which illustrated the different stages of his ministry. Now we are to view him where he long shone so conspicuously-in the chair of Theology. We have here the going forth of that great intellect in the field of investigation, surveying the whole subject of Natural and Revealed Theology, and gathering and systematically arranging and exhibiting the varied and demonstrative evidences of the being and perfections of God and of the truth of Christianity: and this first volume of "Institutes of Theology" is certainly worthy of his distinguished reputation in this department of knowledge and instruction, and equal to anything we have seen from his pen. Few have equalled Chalmers in originality and ability in the field of thought which this work covers, and we greatly misjudge if it does not take the very first rank in treatises on the evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion and on Systematic Divinity. We are assured that none of his published writings received so large a measure of care and thought in preparation as this, and that he looked forward to it when completed as his most matured contribution to the science of Theology.

This first volume treats of "Natural Theology-Evidences of Christianity-Subject-Matter of Christianity." The arrangement in his course of Theological Lectures is a departure from the ordinary one, and admitted by him to be contrary to the "order of almost all the confessions and catechisms of Europe, and of the great majority of our authors." His reasons for this are given at length, and claim the attention of theological instructors and writers on systematic divinity. There are two methods, he says, of arrangement. "The one proceeds chronologically in the order of the Divine administration, beginning with the constitution of the Godhead, and proceeding onward through the successive footsteps of a history which commences with the original purposes of the uncreated mind, and terminates in the consummation of all things. The other proceeds chronologically in the natural order of human inquiry, beginning, therefore, with the darkness and the probabilities and the wants of Natural Theology, and after having ascertained the Scripture to be a real communication from heaven to earth, seeking first after those announcements that are most directly fitted to relieve the distress and to meet the difficulties of nature. It is thus that in entering upon the record the first thing that would naturally attract the notice, is the confirmation which it lends to the apprehension and the anxieties of nature respecting the fearful extent both of man's depravity

and of his danger; whence we should proceed to a consideration of the offered remedy; whence to the means by which that remedy is appropriated; whence to its operation both in reconciling God to man, and regenerating man in the likeness of God; whence to the progressive holiness of the life ripening and maturing, under the influence of the truth of Christianity, for the exercises and joys of a blissful eternity; whence to death and judgment, and the respective destinies of those who have embraced the Gospel of Jesus Christ and those who have rejected it." He adopts the latter, and hence makes man's state of guilt and moral depravation the initial doctrine of a systematic course of lectures on the subject-matter of Christianity.

5.-Beneficence of Design in the Problem of Evil vindicated by the Law of Causation in the Physical Construction of Matter. BY A JOURNEYMAN. New York: Leavitt, Trow, & Co., 1849.

"A"journeyman" author we should think-surely not a "wise masterbuilder." His book we pronounce a puerile conceit, and a libel on good sense and sound philosophy. It is an attempt to bring forth another "Vestiges of Creation," but lacking the show of profound science and the real ability of that readable, and, in some respects, remarkable production, it proves to be only a ridiculous and disgusting abortion. The author propounds a new theory of philosophy, natural, intellectual and moral; and seeks by it to solve various problems relating to mind and matter. Oxygen is assumed by him to be an immaterial principle containing the vital essence and generative law of all physical being. Water-the simplest form of matter is the primary product of oxygen. Water deposits "albumen," and this in turn generates the several primary elements. Oxygen combining with these in various degrees brings forth vegetable and animal life, and finally man as "the highest attainment." "An atom of albumen is the starting point of man." So that oxygen, by an inherent and necessary law, is really the First Cause of all things material. But enough of this "Problem of Evil." The author's system is one of fatalism and materialism in their grossest forms.

The "stormy reception" which the author anticipated for his book will hardly be realized. It is too shallow in its science and speculations; too stupid and puerile in its reasonings, to bewilder, convince, or astound the world. We marvel that so respectable a house should have put their imprimatur on such a semi-infidel and worthless a production.

6. A compendium of Ecclesiastical History.

By JOHN C. L. GIESE

LER, Consistorial_counseller and ordinary Professor of Theology in Gottingen. From the fourth edition. Translated from the German by SAMUEL DAVIDSON, LL.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Ecclesiastical History in the Lancashire Independent College. Vols. I and II. 8vo. pp. 396, 397. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1849.

THE peculiarities and excellencies of this learned history are already well known to scholars. It is characterized by immense research and by the most rigid impartiality. The text is remarkably brief and condensed, and is accompanied by a vast mass of critical and learned notes, illustrative and corroborative. It is doubtless superior, as a whole, to Mosheim, and ranks next to Neander's in point of ability and value. It purports to be a compendium only, not an extended history like the latter. It has already passed to the fourth edition in Germany. An American translation of it exists, made as early as 1836, when the author had brought it down to the period of the Reformation. He has since revised and greatly extended the work, and Dr. Davidson has given us an excellent translation of the last German edition, thus availing the

English student of the full benefits of the author's complete labors. Few men are better qualified for such a service than Dr. Davidson. He is a perfect master of the German tongue and the German mind, and still has no sympathy with German errors. His recent learned work on the "Introduction to the New Testament" has made him most favorably known, not only at home but on this side of the Atlantic. He professes to have adhered closely to the original

text.

We are glad that so valuable a text-book on Church History, and in so finished a state, is made accessible to the English student. The Publishers deserve many thanks for its mechanical execution: it is a noble specimen of fine book-making.

We note but a single deficiency-the want of a full analytical index. We had occasion recently to consult it extensively on a great variety of topics, and found it extremely difficult to find what we were in search of. It is greatly inferior to Mosheim in this particular. Such a facility for reference is indispensable in a work of this chacrater.

7.-Southey's Common-Place Book.

Edited by his Son-in-law, JOHN WOOD WARTER, B.D. New York: Harper & Brother. 1849. 8vo. 416 pp.

We have not read this work in course as we are wont to do those on which we pass our judgment; it could not be expected of us. Still we have examined it enough to form an opinion of its general character and merits. It is a literary curiosity-shop"-full of brief and often striking extracts from an endless variety of authors and on every conceivable subject. It evinces the extensive and careful reading of the renowned author, and is interesting as intimating his literary and moral tastes and habits, his industry and extensive attainments, and his real principles. We value the work highly. There is but one thing that strikes us unfavorably. It would seem from the character of many of these extracts, that Southey had no sympathy with decidedly evangelical ministers, nor with what we believe to be piety in its living and highest forms. Such ministers as Whitfield and Wesley, and Christians of the stamp of Lady Huntington, and whole denominations of evangelicals, as Presbyterians and Methodists, are held up to ridicule and grossly caricatured in many of these gleanings. True, they are not Southey's words, but why should he give them a place in a work sacred to his own private thoughts? They lessen our regard for him, and lessen the value of the book to us.

8.-History of Julius Ceasar. By JACOB ABBOTT. With Engravings. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1849.

We have already more than once expressed our high appreciation of this series of popular Histories, which the Messrs. Abbott are engaged in writing, and the Harpers are bringing out in a style so exceedingly beautiful. We need only to say, in announcing another, that it is executed in a manner quite equal to the previous volumes, and fully sustains the interest of the series. The History of the great Roman General is here briefly but gracefully and graphically portrayed. The sketch is impartial and deeply interesting.

9.-Dante's Divine Comedy: the Inferno. A literal prose translation with the text of the original collated from the best editions, and explanatory notes. By JOHN A. CARLYLE, M. D. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1849.

MACAULAY says of this truly sublime Epic, that it is the only poem worthy to be compared with Milton's Paradise Lost. Scarcely any other human production has called forth so much writing in the shape of essays and commentaries. The translations also are numerous and into various languages. Carye's is no doubt the best English translation, if we except the present. The one before

us is a literal prose translation, and gives the meaning and spirit of the original in an eminently high degree Dante we think could not have fallen into abler hands. Dr. Carlyle has evidently mastered all the sources of criticism, bearing upon the subject, and has expended a vast deal of labor to settle the text and give its meaning in our language. He has a profound appreciation of his subJect as well as a thorough understanding of it. We have here the Italian Text, carefully collated from the best editions, the prose translation, and foot notes, either original or taken from the best sources, illustrative and explanatory. We have no doubt that this will be extensively regarded as the standard edition, in the English tongue, and will induce multitudes to read this immortal creation of genius who are yet ignorant of its merits.

10.-The Histories of Caius Cornelius Tacitus: with Notes for Colleges. By W. S. TYLER, Professor of Languages in Amherst College. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1849.

PROFESSOR TYLER's previous labors in the field of classic literature are a sufficient guarantee of the scholarship and value of his present service. He has here produced a standard edition of the profound Tacitus. The typographical execution of the work is admirable. The text followed, with few deviations, is that of Orelli. The Notes are brief, pertinent, and touch upon the real difficulties in the text-aiding the student just when and where help is most needed. Much time and toil has evidently been given to the preparation of this work; and it cannot fail to prove highly acceptable to scholars, and to facilitate the study of this renowned author.

11.-The Good and the Bad in the Roman Catholic Church.

A

Letter from Rome, by REV. HENRY M. FIELD. New York: G. P. Putnam, 1849:

We have read this little work with many painful reflections. It is our deliberate judgment that there is far more "bad" than " "good" in the spirit and tendency of it, whatever may be the state of the case as to the Romish Church. All we have to say on that point, is simply this: We cannot look upon Rome, viewing it from the standpoint of either Prophecy or History, in any other light than as the great leading inveterate anti-Christian infidel Power of the world, now and ever, arrayed against the one true church, and therefore admitting of no reformation-long since cut off from the vine, and doomed to destruction, by the righteous judgment of God. We wish, therefore, to take no lessons of piety from such a source-we can see little in Rome, as a Christian, to admire, but everything that is vile and hateful.

Not so with our young Protestant traveler. The poetry and pageantry of Rome seem to have made a profound impression upon his romantic mind. Indeed, he quite falls in love with the "mother of harlots and of abominations," in the high-places of her wickedness-so many are her "winning features" and he would have the pure, the Protestant spouse of Christ copy some of her social and moral beauties and virtues! Alas for Protestantism, if we have in this young representative of it, a fair type of the generation of ministers now in the process of training for our Puritan altars. A notorious Puseyite of this region remarked to us, that he had read this author with surprise, seeing that he was a Protestant minister in good standing; that when he wrote in a similar strain, some years since, there was a loud outcry, and he watched with anxiety to see how this would be received. And we are surprised that such a Letter, dated from Rome at an epoch so remarkable, should go forth from the bosom of Protestantism without a rebuke, nay, with commendation.

We attach no sort of importance to this Letter, except as it develops what we believe to be a fact, namely, that the leaven of Puseyism is at work in more denominations than one, especially among our younger clergy and students of divinity, and that a certain class of minds, romantic and ambitious, and defi

cient, we fear, in real piety, are in no little danger of being deeply infected with it. We apprehend far more serious evil to the spirituality and doctrinal soundness of the next generation of ministers from this source, than from the infusion of German rationalism into our Theology-real and great as we believe that to be. And well does it become the church to watch this most insidious error, and one which finds so many congenial elements in the human heart, with a holy jealousy.

In contrasting the sentiment and spirit of this book with "Mornings among the Jesuits at Rome," from the pen of a minister of the established Church of England, we confess that our countryman puts the blush upon us. The one is the impression of a romantic and superficial observer, the other the serious testimony of one who searched Rome to her foundations, as with lighted candles, and found the vast superstructure, in its living as well as historic being, resting on nothing but superstition, error, and iniquity.

12.-Mornings among the Jesuits at Rome.

BY REV. M. HOBART

SEYMOUR. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1849.

THIS is really a somewhat remarkable book, both on account of its disclosures and the ability and originality of much of its reasoning against Romanism. The author is an English Protestant clergyman, who spent some time at Rome recently, and, while there, enjoyed peculiar and extended opportunities of access to, and acquaintance with, many renowned leading Jesuits of that city. This book contains the substance of his conversations with several of the most able, learned, and subtle of them, who were sent to reason away, as they supposed, the last obstacle in his mind to his joining the Church of Rome, on the main points of faith at issue between Romanism and Protestantism. Most wisely, and in a masterly manner, did our author manage the case, completely confounding and silencing those who were sent to finish the work of his conversion. There is a freshness, an originality, and a demonstrative power in his manner of stating and managing the argument on some of the points discussed, especially on the Pope's assumption of infallibility, in his conversation with the Professor of Canon Law in the Collegio Romano, that we have never seen equalled in this great controversy. It is an admirable book to put into the hands of the educated and thinking Romanist. Its representations, also, of the state of mind, even in the most learned and scientific circles of Rome, are startling, and contrary to the belief of the Protestant world. The author says: "I have learned, and must bear about me for ever the memory of the lesson, never again to regard the extremities of credulity as inconsistent with the most scientific attainments, or to suppose that what seems the most absurd and marvellous superstition, is incompatible with the highest education, or to think that the utmost prostration of the mind is inconsistent with the loftiest range of intellectual power."

13.-Scenes where the Tempter has Triumphed. By the Author of the "Jail Chaplain." New York: Harper & Brothers, 1849. THE design of this book is good, and its tendency is good, and we have no fault to find with its spirit or style; and yet it seems to us that, in a great measure, it fails of its end. The fault is in the selection of the cases, and in the manner of narrating and arranging them for effect. The annals of crime certainly furnish many cases far more strikingly illustrative of his main point, "Be sure your sin will find you out," than many he has given-cases, too, of recent occurrence and living notoriety, while he has drawn his from history. The narrative is also too prosy, and the moral often but feebly drawn. With such a subject, and such materials as the author might have availed himself of, he might have made not only a more readable book, but one more effective for good."