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religious Essayists. His writings are distinguished for a profound knowledge of human nature, for clear, practical and enlarged views of Scripture doctrine. The Rev. Dr. Alexander of Princeton speaks of them " as compositions of a very high order of excellence." "They are," says he, " at the same time perspicuous and profound; and furnish clear indications that they are the production of a mind imbued with the pure spirit of Christianity, and thoroughly acquainted with human nature. I know of no writings in which the prejudices against true religion are so ably and accurately considered: the nature of genuine piety is also clearly exhibited, while it is vindicated from the charge of enthusiasm."

The volume contains four essays on Happiness on Christian Piety-Prejudices against the Gospel-and Scripture Doctrine of

Grace.

Goode's Better Covenant is a clear, practical exposition of the gospel plan of salvation. Bishop McIlvaine of Ohio in a letter to the editor, speaks of it as one of the very best practical works of the age. Mr. Goode is a living divine of the English episcopal church.

The leading aim of Russell's Letters is "to illustrate the nature and tendency of the gospel." A great variety of topics of the deepest interest and importance are discussed in a very able and impressive manner. We agree with the editor when he says, "those who may peruse it, will not deem the opinion an extravagant one, that it will hereafter rank with the standard volumes on practical religion, which find a place in every Christian library. Dr. Russell is minister of a congregational church in Dundee, Scotland. He is very highly esteemed as a devoted christian minister and able writer.

Popular Infidelity is from the pen of the editor of the Library. His object is to convict of infidelity those who professing to receive the Scriptures, live in entire neglect of religion-to show that if our views of Christianity do not renovate our natures and sway our conduct, they are illusory. Such is his general object, but in pursuing it a great variety of related topics are treated, which renders the volume rich in valuable thought. It is the work of a pious, well disciplined, discriminating mind-an important and permanent addition to our religious literature. We hope Mr. Hooker will continue to be prospered in his important and useful labors.

2.-The Continent in 1835. Sketches of Belgium, Germany, Swit

zerland, Savoy, and France; including historical notices; and statements relative to the existing aspect of the Protestant religion in those countries. By John Hoppus, M. A. professor of Mental Philosophy and Logic in the University of London, 2 vols. 18mo. pp. 327, 329. London: 1836. These sketches are written in an agreeable manner. Prof. Hoppus is an intelligent, liberal-minded and pious man. As, however, VOL. IX. No. 26.

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he passed over the usual routes, and was rather rapid in his movements, he has not added much to our previous stock of knowledge in relation to the continent. We have gleaned a few interesting items.

The university of Ghent, founded in 1816, is a handsome edifice, with a numerous staff of professors and 400 or 500 students.—The splendid cathedral of St. Bavon in Ghent has a pulpit of oak and white marble, which cost £10,000. "When Leopold comes to Ostend, he appears to join devoutly in the Protestant service. The catholic archbishop of Mechlin, however, was employed to baptize the heir apparent to the Belgian crown: this was one of the compromises in a Protestant prince, which may be regarded as a necessary piece of worldly policy." —On the 20th of Nov. 1834, a university was instituted, at Brussels, with the title of L'université Libre de Belgique, which is designed to furnish an education in all the branches that are preparatory to any of the professions. The lec tures are now delivered in the town-hall. An appropriate edifice will probably be soon erected. There are five faculties, philosophy and letters, natural and mathematical sciences, law, political and administrative sciences, and medicine. The professors are about 25 in number, besides agrégés, or additional teachers.

"The guide, who conducted some of us on a former visit to Waterloo, said that he made one of about 4000 persons, who were employed for a whole week after the battle, in burying the slain." About 400,000 children are instructed in schools throughout Belgium. Not a few Belgians, within the last five years have been brought to the Protestant faith, at Brussels and other cities.

"We have the authority of Twesten for the fact, that the first replies to the English deists which were translated into German, were wholly inefficient as remedies, and did but aggravate the evil.” "Towards the close of the 18th century, the popular philosophy in Germany gave place to the metaphysics of Kant, which aimed at a more profound analysis of the faculties of the human mind; and which, whatever its fundamental defects, had the merit of diffusing in the German universities a spirit of deeper reflection, favorable, in its ultimate tendency, to a reception of the highest religious truth." "Hegel held a pantheistic system of absolute idealism. This theory contains the seeds of a deep infidelity, which is exemplified in some of Hegel's followers. Among these, there is a disposition to deny the sublime truths of a personal God, a personal immortality, and the resurrection of Christ. Other Hegelists, however, as Göschel, have been led, by their christian feelings, to attempt to turn this philosophy to account, in favor of the Christianity of the New Testament.'

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At Frankfort on the Maine, there are three clergymen who preach the doctrines of the reformation. At Maintz, the chaplain to the garrison of the confederation is a decided advocate for the truth.

He has recently published a valuable apologetic work on the book of Joshua. Christianity flourishes at Elberfeld and Barmen in the duchy of Berg. Bremen is distinguished for serious religion. There is an increasing number of Christians in Hamburgh. In no countries of the confederation does rationalism so triumphantly reign as in Brunswick and Saxe Weimar. In the city of Weimar resides the celebrated Röhr. At Leipsic, there are several evangelical ministers who address large audiences. At Wittemberg, Heubner and Rothe still cherish the doctrines of the reformation. "A work lately published at Tübingen on the Life of Christ throws off from the hideous form of infidelity every remnant of the christian mask; and Strauss, the author, openly proclaims the gospel to be the production of a subsequent age. It argues well for Neander's reliance on the innate power of the truth, that when it was debated among the authorities whether Strauss's book should be officially suppressed at Berlin, he decided by the casting vote in the negative." A hopeful testimony is borne to the cities of Königsberg, Memel, Dantzig and other places on the Baltic. Over the extensive country of Silesia there are scattered a number of evangelical preachers; and the university of Breslau is not destitute of a pure theology.

3.-Geology and Mineralogy considered with Reference to Natural Theology. By William Buckland, D. D. canon of Christ church, etc. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 727, plates. London, 1836. Philadelphia republished 1837.

We requested a distinguished American geologist to prepare for us a review of Dr. Buckland's Treatise. He wrote in reply: "I exceedingly regret, that I cannot at present, engage to write the review you desire, since I feel greatly interested in Dr. Buckland's work. It is destined to reconcile those who are now prejudiced against the study of geology, as connected with theological inquiries. Some fine illustrations of the good results of scientific investigation into the works of God are contained in that Essay, which will produce the happiest results in society."

About 100 pages of the work [English edition], are devoted to an examination of the inorganic elements of the animal kingdom, and to theories which have been entertained regarding the origin of the world. The remaining portion is occupied by a minute investiga tion of those myriads of petrified remains, which are disclosed by the researches of geologists, and which appear to have been made up of "clusters of contrivances," that demonstrate the exercise of immense intelligence and power. Among the introductory chapters in the book is one on the "consistency of geological discoveries with sacred history;" in which the author attempts to show, that while these discoveries require some modification of the commonly receiv

ed interpretation of the Mosaic narrative, this admission neither involves any impeachment of the sacred text, nor of the judgment of those who formerly interpreted it, in the absence of facts that have but recently been brought to light.

In pursuance of his main design, Dr. B. examines the composition of various rocks; their relation to each other; the relation of the earth and its inhabitants to man, and finds in each of these particulars abundant evidence of design on the part of the supreme Intelligence. But it is amidst the relics of what he considers a past creation that he has most successfully discovered those proofs of design which give completeness to the whole system of organic nature. A train of observation applied to remains from the fossil mammalia to fossil insects, polypes and vegetables, constitutes the great argument of the treatise.

4.-The Works of Thomas Chalmers, D. D. L.L. D. professsor of divinity in the university of Edinburgh, and corresponding member of the royal Institute of France, Vols. I and II, on Natural Theology and Vol. III on the Miraculous and Internal Evidences of Revelation. New York: Leavitt, Lord

& Co. 1836, pp. 404, 420, 395.

This series of Dr. Chalmer's productions is to contain several new works in addition to those already published. These last, it will be the author's best care both to mature and to remodel. The additions will be, for the most part, if not wholly, of a theological character, and will be on such topics, and combined in such a manner, as to form something like a systematic exhibition of his views on all the principal points of theology. The three volumes named in the title contain Dr. Chalmers's Bridgewater treatise on Natural Theology and the work on the Christian Evidences, both, however, with large additions of preliminary and supplementary matter. Among the additions to the Natural Theology are the chapters on "the distinctions between the ethics of theology and the objects of theology;" and "on the metaphysics which have been resorted to on the side of theism." Under the last he examines Hume's objection to the a posteriori argument for the being of a God, founded on the assertion that the world is a singular effect. He attempts to show that the answers of Reid and Stewart, (who attribute our inference of design from its effects to an original and ultimate principle of our nature), to be unsatisfactory, and that this principle is itself resolvable into another and more general law of the mental constitution, viz. an instinctive belief in the consistency of nature. Large additions have been made to the work on the Evidences; among which are observations on the "moral evidence for the truth of the New Testament," on "the experimental evidence for the truth of Christianity," and on the "portable character of the evidence for the truth of Christianity." In

this treatise he acknowledges some changes in his views on the authority of natural religion. "It is an authority," says he, “that we should at one time have utterly disregarded and contemned, but now hold it in higher reverence, since, reflecting on the supremacy of conscience within us, we deem this to be the token of an ascendant principle of morality and truth in the universe."

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In the subsequent volumes, some new sermons are promised, and a selection from the Lectures to the senior theological class in the university of Edinburgh, on the doctrines of Christianity. We have only to add, in this place, that the American edition is brought out in a very neat and substantial manner. We presume that the worthy publishers will receive for their care an ample remuneration in the sale of the volumes.

5.-The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth. Edited by Prof. Henry Reed of the University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: James Kay, jun. & Brother, 1837, pp. 551. Four or five editions of Bryant have been sold within a short time. Coleridge's poems have been issued from the American press in three very neat volumes. Now we have a superior edition of Wordsworth, in one volume large octavo, double columns. How far these facts indicate a more healthful taste for true poetry among us, we know not. It is now the fashion to praise Wordsworth. Some of his readers will doubtless fall off when it is the fashion to praise somebody else. This edition was prepared by one "who claims to have brought to the task an affectionate solicitude for every verse in the volume." "Yarrow Revisited and the Miscellaneous Poems" have been incorporated with Mr. Wordsworth's preceding poems, according to the poet's unexecuted intention. The prose writings, including a description of the country of the lakes in the north of England, are inserted in an appendix. A fine engraving of the bard by Longacre is prefixed.

6.-Excursions to Cairo, Jerusalem, Damascus and Balbec, from the United States ship Delaware, during her recent cruise. By George Jones, Chaplain U. S. Navy. New York: Van Nostrand & Dwight, 1836, pp. 388.

We ought to have commended to our readers this unassuming and well-written volume in our last number. We assure every person of true taste, of an American heart, and of pious feelings that he will do well to read the book. The author is an episcopal clergyman, a graduate of Yale College, and formerly tutor in the same, and author of Sketches of Naval Life.' In preparing the volume, he had the use of the private journal of commodore Patterson, and of the official letters. A considerable part of the volume is taken up with an at

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