occurrence. The character of the papers will be best understood by our saying that they are written by a scholar, who is competent to give the real meaning of Scripture, and to explain and illustrate that meaning from the materials which are furnished by the history, geography and antiquities of the Oriental Nations, while at the same time, the far more important considerations, involving the spiritual interests of the race, are not overlooked. They are, however, not so much learned commentaries as commentaries written by a learned man for intelligent readers. Neither do they contain many doctrinal reflections; but they present subjects so treated as easily to suggest them.

The primary object of the work is to furnish a single passage for each day of the year, to be read in the family circle or by the individual, thus giving daily subjects for conversation or reflection. The work is divided into four volumes, the first, embracing subjects from the Antediluvian and Patriarchal history; the second, subjects from the history of Moses and the Judges; the third, subjects from the history of the Kings; the fourth, subjects from the Gospels and the Acts. We very much like the plan of the work, and have found such papers as we have read both instructive and interesting.

Notes on the Miracles of our Lord. By RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, M.A., Professor of Divinity, King's College, London; Author of "Notes on the Parables of our Lord," &c. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1850. pp. 374. THE title of this volume commends it to those who have studied the "Notes on the Parables," by the same author. We do not hesitate to say that our clerical readers, especially, will find it well worth their attention. Professor Trench is a theologian of the highest qualifications. He seems to unite the most accurate and various learning with profound and discriminating thought. The fathers, the schoolmen, papists and protestants, German theologians and English writers on physical science, ancient critics and modern travelers, are all equally at his command, and yield their contributions to enrich his pages. Every thing too, is well digested in the author's mind; his work instead of being a mere synopsis of what other men have said, is highly original. And though he writes as a learned and philosophical theologian, he does not forget, nor can his readers forget, that he is a Christian man. If this is a specimen of the theology in King's College, London, commend us to London, rather than to Oxford as a seat of sacred learning.

Sketches of Reforms and Reformers, of Great Britain and Ireland. By HENRY B. STANTON. New York: John Wiley.

MR. STANTON in this work has given a series of sketches of the most important reforms effected or attempted in Great Britain and Ireland from the first French revolution to the present time, with numerous notices of the actors prominent in each. Its title is appropriate; in fact, the performance is, if any thing, too sketchy, to be altogether satisfactory. We can not but think the author has erred in taking in too large a range of subordinate subjects. He seems to have felt himself bound to say something on every political or social movement, and on every public character that could be connected in any way with the great and protracted struggle for reform which he has undertaken to portray. It must be admitted, indeed, that the brilliancy of the execution in many passages redeems in some measure the faults of the design; yet in our opinion the work would have been much more instructive and not less entertaining, if the minor topics had been wholly omitted, or presented only in a general summary, and the "sketches" of the more important scenes and actors in the great drama expanded and filled up into something like a complete picture. The topics included in this bird's-eye view of English politics for the last half century, are well grouped by the author himself in the following passage. Speaking of the career of the Edinburg Review, and of its services in VOL. VIII.

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the cause of governmental reform, he says:-" In the forty-six years of its existence, it has seen the British slave-trade abolished-a devastating European war terminated-the Holy Alliance broken up, and its anointed conspirators brought into contempt-the corporation and test acts repealed-the Catholics emancipated the criminal code humanized-the death-penalty circumscribed -the reform bill carried, extending the suffrage to half a million of peopleWest India and East India slavery abolished-the commercial monopoly of the East India Company overthrown-municipal corporations reformed-the court of chancery opened, and sunlight let in upon its doings-the common law courts made more acceptable to the masses-the law of libel made endurable-the poor laws made more charitable-the game laws brought nearer the verge of modern civilization-the corn-laws repealed-the post-office made subservient to all who can raise a penny-the means of educating the poor increased the privileges of the established church curtailed in three kingdoms-and a long catalogue of minor reforms effected, and dignity and intensity imparted to the popular demand for still larger concessions to the progressive genius of the age." In addition to this imposing list of subjects, many of which the author is obliged to dispose of with a notice provokingly scanty and unsatisfactory, there are sundry chapters on such themes as the Free Church movement in Scotland, the National Debt, the 'Condition of Ireland' question, the Temperance Reformation, the cause of International Peace, and the Liberal Literature of England; and sketches are interspersed of something like a hundred characters, of all sorts and sizes, from Fox and Pitt, Brougham, Bentham and Cobden, down to Mrs. Opie, George Wilson, (who "attended one thousand three hundred and sixty-one meetings of the Anti Corn Law League!") and Feargus O'Conner, "the hot-headed bully, made up in equal degrees of the braggart and the coward, the demagogue and the democrat." Crowding all this matter into the compass of some three hundred and sixty duodecimo pages, we may well believe that Mr. Stanton himself expected to do more to provoke than to satisfy a desire in his readers for an intimate acquaintance with the history of the rise and progress of the great British Reform Party, and with its present condition and prospects of success. The former purpose his work is indeed admirably qualified to accomplish, at least, wherever the reader has any genuine republican sympathy with the cause and the friends of reform in England. Nor can any reader, we are persuaded, whatever his sympathies, fail to have his admiration awakened in view of the wonderful energy, perseverance and ability, with which the champions of improvement have conducted their sixty years contest.

The History of England from the Invasion of Julius Cæsar to the Abdication of James the Second, 1688. By DAVID HUME, Esq. A new edition, with the Author's last corrections and improvements. To which is prefixed a short account of his life, written by himself. Vols. I, II, III. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 82 Cliff Street. New Haven: T. H. Pease. 1850.

HUME's History is a proof at once of the potency and the impotency of good writing. Hume was a Tory; Hume was a Deist; Hume was fond of sly insinuations against purity and piety; and yet, Hume's history is read by every body, by Whig as well as by Tory, by Americans as well as by Englishmen. But, although almost every one derives his first knowledge of English history from Hume, yet the charm of his style has not been potent enough permanently to distort the transactions which he records or the characters of the personages whom he describes. The ultimate opinion of the majority of his readers, at least in this country, and we think in England, is not far from correct as to the great events and the great men of English history.

This edition is to be followed in quick succession by similar editions of Gibbon and Macaulay. We are not displeased at the conjunction, though no three historians are more unlike. Each has great excellencies, but as it re

spects the manner in which the several histories are composed, we give the decided preference to Hume's history. Between the style of Hume, and of Gibbon and Macaulay, there is, as it seems to us, all that difference which exists between nature and art, or, perhaps, we should rather say, between art which has become natural, and the merely artificial.

The volumes are well printed and on good paper; but we must not omit to mention-what in our ignorance of book-publishing, seems little short of a miracle, that the volumes are sold at thirty cents each, and the whole number of volumes is to be only six.

Documents and Letters, intended to illustrate the Revolutionary incidents of Queens County; with connecting narratives, explanatory notes and additions. By HENRY ONDERDONK, Jr. "Posterity delights in details."-J. Q. Adams. New York: Leavitt, Trow and Company, 194 Broadway. 1846. 12mo, Pp. 264.

Revolutionary Incidents of Suffolk and Kings Counties; with an account of the battle of Long Island, and the British prisons and prison-ships at New York. By the same Author. New York: Leavitt, Trow and Company, 191 Broadway. 1849. 12mo, pp. 268.

HISTORIES of the American Revolution contain little information, except in general terms, of the affairs of Long Island during this period of agitation and bloodshed. Mr. Onderdonk, in these volumes, has undertaken to supply, what must be considered an important deficiency by those who are fond of details. The inhabitants of the island were by no means united in the cause of independence. The royal governors and other crown officers had occasionally resided in Queens County, where in connection with several wealthy and aristocratic families, they exerted a controlling influence. In Kings County, the population was mostly Dutch, and the resistance made to the royal power was feeble. In Suffolk County, where the inhabitants were mostly of Puritan descent, a strong sympathy was early felt in the proceedings of Massachusetts. After the island was abandoned by the American army, a great majority of the people in Queens County and many in Kings County took the oath of allegiance in good faith. In Suffolk County, the leading whigs fled to the Main, while those who remained took reluctantly an oath of allegiance which they little regarded. The consequence was, that till the peace of 1783, the Long Islanders were subject to the evils of both a foreign and a civil war. These volumes are the more interesting, as they are chiefly made up of public documents and original accounts of occurrences, which Mr. Onderdonk has collected with much labor, and has skillfully arranged and illustrated. The whole work is a valuable addition to our history.

The War with Mexico. By R. S. RIPLEY, Brevet Major in the United States Army, First Lieutenant of the Second Regiment of Artillery, etc. In two volumes. Harper and Brothers, publishers, 82 Cliff Street. 1849. THIS history is a military criticism of the war, from which it appears that Taylor and Scott know nothing of the science of war, and that their victories were all scientific blunders; Santa Anna, to judge from this book, being in the estimate of Major Ripley, almost the only accomplished General engaged in the contest. There are, however, in the book some things which show that great military science may coexist with very little logical science. "The opposition party of the American people was looked to (by the Mexicans) to defeat the measures of their government. Nor was reliance placed entirely upon the manifestation of their sentiments (sentiments of the opposition party), in public prints." Almonte it seems "had concocted a scheme"-with whom? with the opposition party? No,-but "with some abolitionists of black slavery, whose crazy philanthropy enabled them to look upon high treason with Mexi

can eyes, by which they were to assist the Mexicans against their own government, should the war break out and hostilities be actually commenced." The proof of this scheme exhibits no less logical science. It consists of two letters found in the Mexican post office, one of which the author gives up, and the other might as well be given up. For it does not appear that it was writted by any member of "the opposition party," nor, if it was, that that individual member spoke for the whole party. It is not necessary to say any thing more of this book.

The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, including a variety of pieces now first collected. By JAMES PRIOR, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries; Member of the Royal Irish Academy; Author of the Life of Goldsmith, Life of Burke, etc., etc. In four volumes. Vol. II. New York: George P. Putnam, 155 Broadway. 1850.

In our Number for February, we gave an account of the first volume of this new edition of Goldsmith's Miscellaneous Works. The second volume is now before us. It contains "the Citizen of the World," and "A Familiar Introduction to the Study of Natural History." In paper and print, it is fully equal to the first volume. We can not but think, one ought to feel himself under special obligation to any person, who shall afford him a fair occasion to read the "Citizen of the World," though we can not suppose there are any persons of ordinary intelligence who have not often read it. Doct. Johnson seems to have had a poor opinion of Goldsmith's qualification to write upon Natural History; he remarked to Boswell-" if he can distinguish a cow from a horse, that, I believe, may be the extent of his knowledge of natural history." But the Doctor on another occasion acknowledged that he would make the work "as entertaining as a Persian tale." Doct. Johnson underrated the knowledge of Goldsmith, but he did not overrate-nor could he overrate-the interest with which Goldsmith could invest any subject which he chose to write upon.

Eloquence a Virtue; or, Outlines of a Systematic Rhetoric. Translated from the German of Dr. FRANCIS THEremin, by WILLIAM G. T. SHEDD, Prof. &c., in the University of Vermont. New York: John Wiley. 1850. 12mo, pp. 162.

THE author of this book was one of the most eloquent preachers in Germany, and his published sermons fill eleven octavo volumes. The title of the work is a little paradoxical, and might provoke the censure of an over-nice critic. The aim of the discussion is noble, and the topics are handled with superior ability. Its tendency is to dignify the calling of the orator by showing that he has to deal with beings who possess a moral nature, and that the highest, nay, the only power which he can wield, is ethical. We commend it most heartily to all pettifogging lawyers, to windy politicians, to noisy demagogues, and last though not least, to popular preachers.

Physician and Patient; or, a Practical View of the Mutual Duties, Relations and Interests of the Medical Profession and the Community. By WORTHINGTON HOOKER, M.D. New York: Baker and Scribner, 145 Nassau Street, and 36 Park Row. 1849. pp. 453.

THE first two chapters of this work treat of the necessary uncertainty there is in the cure of diseases. This uncertainty arises in part from the nature of the body and of the mind, which can not be always cured of their maladies, in part from the fact that it is impossible to know with certainty their precise state at any one moment or what it will be at any subsequent time, and from other causes which need not be mentioned. These chapters prepare the way for the next two topics, Popular Errors and Quackery. The errors which pre

vail in the community arise either from overlooking how little can be known, which leads men to expect too much from medicine, or from assuming to decide upon necessarily inadequate grounds, which leads to particular views which are false. Quackery has its logical foundation, so far as it has any, in mere hypothesis: every patent medicine, and every system of Quackery has its theory of diseases and of their remedies, founded upon hypotheses which not only are not known to be true, but are known in most cases to be false. Under the head of Quackery, the author treats of Thompsonism, Homeopathy and Natural Bone-setters. The remaining chapters are upon the following topics: Good and Bad Practice; Theory and Observation; Popular Estimate of Physicians; Means of Removing Quackery; Intercourse of Physicians; Interference with Physicians; Mutual Influence of Mind and Body in Disease; Insanity; Influence of Hope in the Treatment of Disease; Truth in our Intercourse with the Sick; Moral Influence of Physicians; Trials and Pleasures of Medical Life. It is obvious that some of these chapters are naturally connected with the first two, which, so far as it goes, gives a unity to the treatise. But many of them are not so connected, which makes the work somewhat miscellaneous in its character. The topics, however, are all of them such as the community take an interest in, and few persons will begin this book without finding their interest continually increasing. Dr. Hooker has adopted the true method of removing the errors which prevail in the community, and of resisting the evils of Quackery. Nothing more useful has ever been written on the subject.

Life, Health and Disease. By EDWARD JOHNSON, M.D., Author of "Hydropathy,” Nuces Philosophica." New York: John Wiley. 1850. 12mo, pp. 172.

THIS book was written under the impression "that a small concise work, clearly explaining, in common language, the nature of the animal economy, the mechanics of the internal man, the mechanism of life-detailing, step by step, what actually takes place in each of the functions concerned in the preservation of life and health, and how, and by what causes, life is sustained-it struck me, I say, that such a work would be highly acceptable to the public, and would supply a desideratum in the elementary scientific literature of the country." The book has passed through nine editions in England. It is written with an abundance of vigor, and the man who opens it will be loath to close it again till he has read it through. The author not only shows his reader how to be healthy, but he assists him to be so, by startling him with an occasional pithy sentence, or rousing him into a broad laugh. Some of the author's theories about the connection of the mind and body, are entirely too gross and material; but the tendency of the work not only to instruct, but to arouse the luxurious and dyspeptic reader is truly admirable. Among the scores of books on health, this seems to us to be the most useful and pleasant.

A Dictionary of Machines, Mechanics, Engine-Work and Engineering: designed for practical Working-men and those intended for the Engineering Profession. Edited by OLIVER BYRNE, formerly Professor of Mathematics, College of Civil Engineering, London; Author and Inventor of "the Calculus of Form," ," "The New and Improved System of Logarithms," "The Elements of Euclid by Colors," etc., etc., etc. Numbers 1-6. New York: D. Appleton & Company, 200 Broadway. Philadelphia: Geo. S. Appleton, 164 Chesnut Street. New Haven: T. H. Pease.

THE design of this work is sufficiently set forth in the title-page. Our readers, however, may wish to be informed both as to the comprehensiveness of the plan and as to its execution. The work, then, will contain, when it is finished, a description of all the most important machines used by man in any department of industry, and of many of the most distinguished structures,