Religious Duty. By FRANCES POWER COBBE. Boston: William V. Spencer, 134, Washington Street. 1865.

Miss Cobbe's book has already been noticed in this journal. We have written down the title again, because we wished to place it by the side of another work upon the same topic, by a writer whose stand-point is within the fold of Christendom, and to say how much we have been moved and rejoiced to find, that, widely as these authors differ in the treatment of their subject, they are none the less singularly at one, and, far more than they seem, do mean the same thing. Both are hearty, whole-souled, practical believers in the grace of God, in his loving nearness to the human soul; both are at once eminently devout, eminently practical, and richly suggestive. Differing as widely as two writers can in their theological views, they are both edifying, and will be read with great interest and profit by persons who would hardly worship in the same church, because they both believe in PRAYER; and that through the mighty help of God the being of man is enriched and strengthened unto every good word and work. The books are, both of them, real and experimental, reports of the inward life. Miss Cobbe believes far more than she can prove; and, whilst it is plain that her nature might have been eminently religious, she does credit to a noble Christian culture. And, on the other hand, Gouldburn, holding strong, positive Christian views, does not content himself with the phrases of piety, but abounds in mature thoughts, and good, wholesome food for hungry souls; evidently without any attempt at fine writing, or literary aim beyond the very laudable desire to be clear, concise, correct, and animated. There are denials in Miss Cobbe's book, to which we should take exception her view of prayer for outward things seems to us narrow and unsound, quite inferior to that which Dr. Hedge has presented in his admirable volume entitled, "Reason in Religion" (see chapter on "The Exorable God"); in fact, an effort of the understanding to pass beyond its sphere into transcendent realms. But we are quite ready, in our hearty assent and consent, as we read other pages besides the few which are given to this special topic, to forget these (as they seem to us) unsatisfactory reasonings. And, as we are compelled to add to the affirmations of Miss Cobbe, so there are a few things in Gouldburn which we must leave out as unreal to us, and amongst the conventionalities of theology, We presume that our English Episcopalian would be much horri

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fied with the theological freedom of Miss Cobbe, even in this, which is one of the most positive and affirmative of her books; whilst Miss Cobbe, once a good "churchwoman" herself, might characterize the "Thoughts on Personal Religion" as belonging to the literature of the past. But, for ourselves, vehemently as they might dislike one another, we are glad to confess, that we are inconsistent enough to like them both, and to have found in both good food for the hungry soul. Neither of the books should we give to the undiscerning. As we cannot choose but judge, there are heresies in the one as in the other; things that need to be explained and qualified for the unskilful and unstable. But this is true of most earnest scriptures were it not so, there would not be the need there is in Christendom of the well-instructed scribe."

E.

Companion Poets for the People. Illustrated. Household Poems. By HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1865. Price, fifty cents.

No insignificant part do these little volumes play in the blessed work of educating the people. They will sow good seed, and so pre-occupy the ground that there will be small space for the tares to spring up. Specially grateful will the small books be, in the summer time, for the folks on hill-sides and "by the way of the sea."

E.

A very timely and very manageable and very comely little volume is "The President's Words, a Selection of Passages from the Speeches, Addresses, and Letters of Abraham Lincoln." Published by Walker, Fuller, & Company, 245, Washington Street. It is as full of wisdom as an egg is of meat, and far better than a much larger book would be.

E.

The Life of M. T. Cicero, by FORSYTH, published by Charles Scribner & Co., New York, which we announced in our last number, is a charming picture of the private as well as public life of the great Roman statesman and orator. Mr. Forsyth does not conceal the faults of Cicero; indeed his egregious vanity and egotism are not to be concealed, as they were an essential part of him but the author does ampler justice to his great virtues than Merivale does, and with a more discriminating and impartial hand than Middleton. This work will supersede Middleton's, and will be indispensable not only to the scholar, but the popular reader, for a familiar knowledge of Cicero, or the times which his splendid genius illustrated.

S.

The Iliad of Homer, rendered into English blank verse, by EDWARD, Earl of Derby, in two volumes, is published by the same firm, and in the same style with the "Life of Cicero." The binding is in exquisite taste, the print large and clear, on tinted paper, and is most grateful to the eye.

The heroic blank verse which the translator has chosen is unquestionably better adapted to the majestic simplicity of Homer than the monotonous rhymes of Pope, or the heptameter verse of old Chapman. He adheres as closely to the original as the English language will allow, without giving a paraphrase or a baldly literal rendering. The grand old bard himself would own the present translation as giving more perfectly than any other the honest sense and spirit of the Iliad. The reader who wishes to study Homer in the most terse and simple English will prefer it, and cannot well do without it. Nothing, however, will supersede either Pope or Chapman: the former as showing the wonderful resources of the English language for musical flow; and the latter for preserving the old English idioms in their compactness and nerve, the English of the Elizabethean age. Macauley sneers at Pope very justly so far as he fails to give us Homer; but Pope's Iliad has been thumbed and read and recited in farmhouses and cottages, wherever the books of a circulating library have found entrance. It was the standard of poetical taste for half a century; and, though a very false standard, it did more to abolish limping and slovenly rhymes, and develop the wonderful harmonies of the language, than any other work that could be named.

The present translator, for good reasons, adopts the Latin rather than the Greek nomenclature for the heathen deities. He has given in these two volumes a noble monument of taste and learning.

S.

Christianity and Statesmanship, with Kindred Topics. By WILLIAM HAGUE, D.D. Boston: Gould & Lincoln.

This is a new edition of Dr. Hague's former work, revised and enlarged. It embraces a variety of topics, discussed in the vigorous style and intellectual power for which the author has become generally known. These topics are Christianity and Statesmanship, Christianity and the Turkish Power, Christianity and Traditionism, embracing a review of the life and times of Wickliffe ; Christian Greatness in the Apostle, Christian Greatness in the

Missionary, Christian Greatness in the Statesman, Christian Greatness in the Citizen, Christianity and Pauperism, Christianity and Liberal Giving, Christian Union, Christianity and Slavery. There is also an Appendix of sixty pages, containing discussion and criticism on topics of living interest. The essay on Christianity and Slavery is elaborate and closely argumentative, and a triumphant vindication of abolitionism. "Apostolic Christianity abolished slavery" is the well-reasoned conclusion of the essay. The spirit of the book is both liberal and evangelical.

S.

The Ideal Attained. By ELIZA W. FARNHAM. New York: C. M. Plumb & Co.

Not often do we read a novel clean through; but we have got fairly into the story of this, and shall not give it up. We are very agreeably surprised in the graces of style and the truthfulness of description, both of character and scenery, and the absorbing interest of the tale. The pictures of scenery and of social life in California are said to be faithful and true, as they are certainly graphic and lifelike. The writer evidently draws from a large experience of men and things, and paints realities in the colors of romance. The print and paper are worthy of special praise, and the whole external appearance of the book very attractive.

Mrs. Farnham held some theories which are justly thought very extravagant; but no one can refuse a hearty homage to her brilliant genius and her noble philanthropy.

S.

Reason in Religion. By FREDERIC HENRY HEDGE. Boston: Walker, Fuller, & Co.

This treatise, after two introductory chapters, divides into two books: the first, "Religion within the Bounds of Theism;" the second, "Rational Christianity." Under these divisions are several chapters, each an essay complete in itself, yet bearing upon the general scope of the whole treatise, and helping to develop a system, though the outlines of it are not sharply defined, and were not intended to be. The themes are handled with Dr. Hedge's great logical power and felicity of style, and with unusual beauty of illustration. Sometimes he takes the highest positive ground, far in advance of the prevailing thought of Christendom, fortifying and inspiring anew its flagging faith. We have never seen the subject of prayer placed on ground more impregnable and rational, or giving ampler encouragement to devotion. The proofs of the

divine existence in the moral and spiritual nature of man are set forth with great cogency; those from external nature, or what is called the cosmical argument, are dishonored, we think, more than need be. The Christian doctrine of immortality seems to us also to have an inadequate statement; immortality being a moral attainment, rather than the inhering necessity of human nature. On many subjects treated, most readers will withhold assent, and many more will enter strong protest; but they will not fail of a constant intellectual stimulus and moral quickening, as also vast openings into fields of thought which they had never trodden. The subject of miracles is treated with philosophic discrimination, and from a point of view which renders the old controversies altogether useless. The book will be widely read, and many passages of special power and pungency will have a permanent place in religious literature.

S.

Harp of the West. By H. A. REID, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. We have received the sheets in advance of publication. Mr. Reid is a genuine poet, and writes from the gushing fountains of the heart. We have already published some hymns of his which evidently wrote themselves. We select another from the sheets which he sends us.

"The soul's new birth is as a flower

Fresh budding in its place,
With inward joy and soft, sweet power
To form the outward grace;

And shows what germs of beauty rest
Within the rudest human breast.

The soul's new birth is as a star
Just peeping out of night;
From depths of darkness oh how far

It reaches after light,

And twinkles with a glad, new sense
Of God's bright-shining providence!

The soul's new birth is as a rill

That leaps and ripples down
The rugged, rocky steeps of will,

That only used to frown;

But now the crags are mossy green,

And sweet wild-flowers shoot up between.