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for boats and small craft. The productions are all indigenous, and in general spontaneously produced." The temperature is extremely even, and the heat by no means oppressive. It is inhabited by ten distinct tribes of Indians, differing considerably from each other in their manners and habits. The only Catholic mission now existing, is that of Sarayacu, a town of 2000 inhabitants. Many of the Indians, who had been converted to the Roman Catholic faith under the Spanish government, have, since the desertion of the missionaries, relapsed into their former barbarous state. Among the half civilized Indians, intoxication is the cause of great depravity of morals. Domestic happiness seems to be nearly unknown. "The Marañon, and most of the rivers which fall into it, are as well calculated for steam navigation, as any waters in the world, and there is an inexhaustible store of fuel growing on the banks of all of them." Much valuable information, told in an unassuming manner, may be found in this volume.

These countries were visited in the years 1827-1832 by Dr. Edward Poeppig, a German, who, since his return to his native land, has published two quartos, containing between 900 and 1000 closely printed pages. He had previously visited the United States and Cuba. The visit to South America originated with some friends of natural history in Germany, who confided the execution of it to Dr. Poeppig, and supplied him with funds. He collected 17,000 specimens of dried plants, many hundred stuffed animals, and a great number of other natural productions, which were distributed among the patrons of the expedition. The introduction into gardens of very many plants before unknown; 3000 descriptions of plants made on the spot, especially with regard to such parts of the flowers as it would be more difficult to examine subsequently; thirty finished drawings of landscape scenery; forty drawings of anodeae; thirty drawings of orchideae; numerous sketches; and a private botanical collection of extraordinary extent, are a portion of the fruits of the journey.

Dr. Poeppig arrived at Valparaiso after a voyage of 110 days from Baltimore. He thinks favorably of the future prospects of Chili. "The shaking off of the Spanish yoke, the rapid rise of commerce, and a sense of personal and national dignity, have influence not only on the moral character of the people of Chili, but have also extended their effects to the external appearances and forms of ordinary life. It was the congress, and the consti

tution of 1828 that abolished entails, the sources from which the misery, poverty, and ignorance of the peasantry are derived, as well as the cause of great neglect of agriculture even in very fertile provinces. In Valparaiso the number of houses and of inhabitants, has more than doubled within ten or twenty years. The haciendas (farms) in the central provinces have from 10,000 to 15,000 head of cattle, and many even 20,000.

Brazil is in a very bad state. "It was by no means an unusual occurrence," says Dr. Meyen, another German voyager," for five or six murders to be perpetrated in one night in Rio Janeiro. In many houses the slaves were chained down during the night, that their masters might sleep with a feeling of security. The capital resembled a volcano of which every one dreaded the eruption, without exactly knowing how it would break out. Justice will avenge itself on the white man for the barbarities, which he has for centuries exercised on millions and millions of negroes. The fate of Brazil is inevitable. Three fourths of the population are people of color, only one fourth being of Caucasian origin. To our astonishment, we found at Rio people of the country, distinguished for their education and humanity, who coolly assured us we were mistaken in imagining that the negroes belong to our species." "The hostility," says Dr. Poeppig, "the hatred, of the many colored classes will continue a constant check to the advancement of the State, full of danger to the prosperity of the individual citizens, and perhaps the ground of the extinction of entire nations. The fate which must sooner or later befal the greater part of tropical America, which is filled with negro slaves, which will deluge the fairest provinces of Brazil with blood, and convert them into a desert, where the civilized white man will never again be able to establish himself, may not indeed afflict Colombia and Peru to the same extent; but these countries will always suffer from the evils resulting from the presence of an alien race."

4.-A Plea for Voluntary Associations in the Work of Missions. New York: John S. Taylor, 1837.

The first chapter in this work exhibits the general advantages of voluntary associations over church organization in the work of spreading the gospel. The disadvantages of the latter are as follows: 1. "For church-courts to assume the control and direction

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of missionary operations and disbursements is an attempt to subject to ecclesiastical legislation that which the Great Head of the church has left to the unbiassed decision of every man's conscience." 2. "There is no enactment in the Bible, enjoining it on the church as such, in her organized form, by her judicatories, to evangelize the world." The reasons, why it is not expedient for the Presbyterian church, in her ecclesiastical capacity, to engage in efforts for the conversion of the world, are thus given: 1. "This church, in her highest court, is not well adapted, by the mode of her organization, to superintend and direct the work of missions, either faithfully or efficiently." The members of the Assembly come from great distances. body changes, for the most part, every year. It is encumbered with other business. Yet the authority of the Assembly stands between the boards which may be annually appointed and the public, to shield these boards from the watchful scrutiny of others. 2. "These boards, thus constituted, and acting under so powerful a sanction of what is so little understood, are the most irresponsible bodies that could well be devised." 3. "By conducting all her concerns ecclesiastically, the judicatories of the church would be loaded with an amount of property and of secular business, which would much endanger her spirituality." 4. "If we consider also the best means for promoting the unembarrassed and alert action of the church, in the work of missions, we may find occasion to distrust the relative efficiency of formal ecclesiastical organizations for this purpose." These propositions, supported as they are by undeniable facts, cannot be overthrown. Their truth and importance are attested by every year's experience in the history of missions and of the church.

The remainder of the volume, which we have not space here to notice, is taken up in detailing various matters in relation to the history of the last meeting of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church.

5.-Devotional Guides. By Rev. Robert Philip of Maberly Chapel. With an Introductory Essay by Rev. Albert Barnes. 2 vols. pp. 345, 334. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1837.

These volumes contain, Christian Experience, Communion with God, Eternity Realized, The God of Glory, Pleasing God, and Redemption, or the New Song in Heaven. "The hap

py thought seems to have occurred to the mind of the author," remarks Mr. Barnes, " to issue a succession of small books, similar in their character and tendency, that should be adapted to comfort the hearts, relieve the perplexities, and promote the spiritual advancement of Christians." The subjects are treated in a way that will be satisfactory to all serious minds. The character of the author's style is evidently fitted to the work which he has undertaken. It is simple, pure, terse, intelligible, and occasionally highly beautiful and forcible. It is evidently the style of a man who has much communion with the sacred Scriptures, and with his own heart." The circulation of these treatises in various forms has been very great. Their influence, if we may judge from the portions which we have read, must be highly salutary. The two volumes of Mr. Appleton are stereotyped in a substantial manner.

6.-Sermons, and an Essay on the Pentateuch. By Robert Means, A. M. of Fairfield District, S. C. With an Introduction and a Sermon occasioned by his death, by George Howe, Prof. of Bib. Lit. in the Theol. Sem. Columbia, S. C. Boston: Perkins & Marvin, 1836, pp. 610.

Mr. Preston, the distinguished senator from South Carolina, thus speaks of Mr. Means: "As no one possessed more qualities to attract esteem and affection, so no one was the centre of a more devoted circle than that which now deplores the loss of our friend and brother. I have not known a man, who united in so eminent a degree, the highest qualities of a gentleman and a Christian; in whose life and conversation there was such a uniform beauty, or whose amiable character resulted so much more from the presence of virtues than the absence of faults." The essay on the Pentateuch was written in answer to the pamphlet of Dr. Cooper on the same subject. The geological theory adopted by Dr. C., then president of South Carolina college, is irreconcilable with the commonly received interpretation of the Mosaic cosmogony. Dr. C. consequently proceeded to disprove the genuineness of the Pentateuch. Mr. Means, in his reply, completely refutes the doctor, and in so doing has furnished a good view of the arguments in favor of the genuineness of that ancient document. It, perhaps, suffers somewhat in its perspicuity, from the fact that Mr. M. is compelled to follow his opponent in all his tortuous course. The sermons may be read

with much pleasure and advantage. Prof. Howe has done a good service for the memory of his departed friend, and for the christian public.

7.-Protestant Jesuitism. By a Protestant. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1836, pp. 295.

Were we to believe all which this anonymous writer propounds, we should look upon ourselves as the subjects of the most grinding bondage on earth. If the author has any benevolence of character, he will betake himself at once, after he has brought out his Sequel, to the vocation of Peter the hermit, and call on all valiant knights and true, to do battle against those wicked, voluntary societies, "whose control is becoming more uncontrollable;" "which have in a brief period revolutionized society, or more properly, perhaps, reconstructed it on a new model," "which have literally bound the public mind of this country in chains," etc. If the writer believes one tenth part of what he asserts, it is no time for him to linger. While he is writing, the country may have taken the last mad leap into the whirlpool of perdition. But to be serious; the protestant' in his preface protests that he has made thorough work with his subject. "It seemed to him pertinent, and somewhat important, to make thorough work." "An imperfect exposure seemed worse than none, and he has, therefore, thought proper to give it a thorough discussion." "Unless he made a full display," etc. "An effort to expose it should bear on that point with corresponding force," etc. Let us examine one passage in this thorough exposure.

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The proper test of the success of Christian missions is a permanent impression made on the regions of civilization, previously devoted to idolatry, such as was effected by the ministry of the apostles over the Roman empire and elsewhere; at least, that we might hear of converts from among the higher castes of semi-barbarous nations, and from among men of superior intellectual culture. The fact that none of this class, except Rammohun Roy, have yet returned from pagan ground to show themselves on the heights of Christianity, as trophies of modern Protestant missions, is a fair indication of the meagre fruits of these efforts.

Our first remark is that the conversion of a population like that of South Africa is certainly not an improper test of the success of christian missions. Again, there are now no such regions of

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