the seasons and the sceneries of nature. I have relished the bounties of Providence, using them with moderation and thankfulness. I have delighted in the means of grace; unutterable have been my delights in studying and perusing the scripture. How have I verified the words of Young

'Retire and read thy Bible to be gay.'

"Preaching has been the element of my heart and my head. My labors have met with much acceptance, nor have I labored in vain. I have seldom been without hearing of some instances of usefulness from the pulpit and the press. God has honored me to call by my labors not a few individuals, even into the ministry. The seat of my residence was of all others, the place of my preference. My condition has been the happy medium of neither poverty or riches. I had a most convenient habitation, with a large and lovely garden,--a constant source of attraction, exercise, and improvement. I had a sufficient collection of books of all kinds. My wife was a gentlewoman, a saint, a domestic goddess. My children were fair, and healthy, and dutiful. My friends were many, and cordial, and steady. Where shall I end?

'Call not earth a barren spot,

Pass it not unheeded by;

"Tis to man a lovely spot,

Though a lovelier awaits on high.'

"I do not believe that on this earth misery preponderates over good. I have a better opinion of mankind than I had when I began my public life."

Mr. Jay's residence at Bath, and his renown as a preacher, led to the acquaintance and friendship of many distinguished personages; among others, Wilberforce, Hannah More, Rowland Hill, John Newton, Robert Cecil, John Ryland, Robert Hall, John Foster and many others. His reminiscences of these individuals are very interesting. They evince his noble, catholic spirit, and the candor of his disposition. We wish we had room for extensive extracts. We content ourselves with a single one. It relates to the Rev. Samuel Pearce. "I had not a great deal of intimacy with Mr. Pearce, but I knew him and heard him sufficiently to appreciate him, and to make me thankful that I had not to depend on report for his character or preaching. It may seem saying much, but I speak the words of truth and soberness, when I have endeavored to form an image of our Lord as a preacher, Pearce has oftener presented himself to my mind than any other I have been acquainted with: not, however, as he began his ministry. Then he was too

rapid, and had a kind of tiptoe motion in the pulpit; but after a while, when his delivery was distinguished by mildness and tenderness, and a peculiar unction derived not only from his matter but his mind. I cannot accurately convey the appearance and impression he made, yet I can see the one, and feel the other, even at this great distance of time.

"If, after days of drought, in a summer's evening, you have viewed from your window the rain from heaven, not falling in a pouring torrent, but in a kind of noiseless distillation, every drop soaking in, and sure to be useful, and you thinking of "the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed"-that emblem would aid you a little in conceiving of the mode and effect of his address. He was a man of a most affectionate disposition and candid temper, having much of the meekness of wisdom and the wisdom of meekness. He was the first Baptist minister I ever heard use the Lord's prayer, which he did as he prayed before my sermon, when I preached at Battersea for Mr. Hughes. There, too, I had my last interview with him. Mr. Be had sent his carriage to town for two others and ourselves, and it was to take us back the next morning; but preferring to be by ourselves we privately took a boat, and returned by water. In our conversation I well remember asking him what views of heaven he found the most attractive and affecting? He replied, "These have varied, (perhaps owing to some change in my condition or experience,) at different times; but for a good while past, I think my most delightful view of heaven has been derived from it as a place and state of blessed and endeared society, with Jesus at the Head. Hence I have frequently touched upon it in my sermons, and have more than once preached from such texts as these:-I beheld a great multitude,' &c., and by our gathering together unto him.' 'He will present us together with you,' &c.' Thus we reached the stairs of Blackfriars Bridge, and parted to meet no more till adieux and farewells are a sound unknown. But what a savor does communion with such a man leave upon the spirit! And how blamable are we in not turning our social moments to more account! for we never know but our present intercourse may be our final.

"Though I was not a personal witness of the following occur rence, I cannot deny myself the pleasure of recording it, from the testimony of one who was. Mr. Pearce was preaching on a public occasion; the sermon was excellent and well arranged; but after he had appeared naturally to have ended it, he broke forth afresh; and what was added, though excellent, seemed not to grow out of the particular subject of the discourse.

"When it was over, Mr. Fuller, who had heard it, said, Mr. Pearce, will you allow me to ask a question? I much liked and admired your sermon, but did you make intentionally any alteration of or addition to it, in the close? because, valuable as it was, it seemed not of a piece with the former parts.' After a pause, Mr. Pearce said, 'Well, if I must answer, the case was this:When I was uttering the last two or three sentences, I saw running up to the crowded place a poor man, wiping his face and head, and eager to hear. I thought this poor creature had come from a distance, and it would be cruel to let him go away without hearing a word of the Saviour; and so my pride yielded to my pity, and I tried to be useful, by adding a few things, regardless of connection or order.' And what said-not fastidious critics-but lovers of souls, and angels, and God, the Judge of all?"

It gives us the greatest pleasure to have an opportunity to commend these volumes to the attention of our readers. They breathe the spirit of genuine Christianity. There is no bigotry; no fanaticism; no narrow-minded sectarianism; but a broad, expansive Christian love. It is Christianity carried into all the details of active life, animated with the breathings of grace, mercy, and peace.

LITERARY NOTICES.

Christ a Friend: Thirteen discourses, by NEHEMIAH ADAMS, D. D., Pastor of the Essex street Church, Boston. Second Edition. Boston: Published by John P. Jewett & Co. 1853. New Haven: T. H. Pease.

This volume is a worthy companion of the author's "Friends of Christ." It is written in the same pure style and abounds in the same fine trains of thought and feeling. These are themes which are well suited to our author, and we hope to hear often from him on these and kindred topics.

Sketches of Places and People Abroad By W. WELLS BROWN. With a memoir of the Author. Boston: Published by John P. Jewett & Co. New Haven: T. H. Pease.

Mr. Brown was a delegate to the Peace Congress in Paris, in 1849. He has been abroad five years, and during this time has traveled above twenty-five thousand miles through Great Britain, addressed more than one thousand public meetings, and lectured in a large number of Mechanics' and Literary Institutions. He came in contact with many of the most distinguished men of Great Britain. We have in this volume the results of his observations. The volume is strictly a reprint, as it was first published in London, where it received the favorable notice of the press. We have found it a pleasantly written and interesting volume. It adds to the interest of the work, that it is written by a fugitive slave; a man of character, and one of the many of those self educated men with whom our country abounds.

Bos

Ida May: a Story of Things Actual and Possible. By MARY LANGDON. ton: Phillips, Sampson & Company. New York: J. C. Derby. 1854. New Haven: T. II. Pease.

The Actual and the Possible are not always the best materials of fiction. The Actual may be so rare as to be unnatural, and the Possible so far beyond the usual course of things as to possess little interest. We must confess that the story of this novel has so little plausibility as materially to detract from the pleasure of its perusal. The introduction of the childish conversation of Ida in the first chapter seems to us in very bad taste. Children, it is true, frequently make such remarks, and they strike us from the contrast between the infantileness of the speaker and the mysteriousness of the subject, but we should hardly think of introducing them into print. We, however, recognize much merit in the work, and wish it a wide circulation.

The Sunbeam. Boston: Published by John P. Jewett and Company. Cleveland, Ohio: Jewett, Porter & Worthington. New York: Sheldon, Lamport & Blakeman. New Haven: T. H. Pease.

1855.

This is a most enchanting volume; full of pleasant reading for children, and not without its interest, as we happen to know, to those of an older growth.

Life Scenes of the Messiah. By Rev. RUFUS W. CLARK. Boston: Published by same. New Haven: T. H. Pease.

This book opens with a fine engraving of the Crucifixion. The work itself consists of a series of essays, of an instructive character, on events in the life of Christ. The whole number of essays is twenty five.

Leaves from the Tree Igdrasyl. By MARTHA RUSSELL. Boston: Jewett & Company. New Haven: T. H. Рease.

We have found ourselves much interested in this volume. There is much that is open to criticism, but there is much more deserving of praise.

The Mothers of the Bible. By Mrs. SARAH G. ASHTON, with an introductory essay by Rev. A. L. Stone. Boston: J. P. Jewett & Co.

This volume, attractive in its clear type and inviting pages, is evidently written by one who has faithfully studied the portraits, and who delights to clear away whatever may cover or obstruct, and to hold them up as models, or as warnings. Many attractive and beautiful features are brought to light, which place these mothers in Israel before us in bold relief, and although many of the sketches are filled up by the pencil of fancy, yet it so reverently and prayerfully approaches the sacred word that we do not deem it unsafe or useless. The influence of this book, wherever read, will be to awaken interest in these mothers of ancient time, and excite a livelier appreciation both of their virtues and their errors, while stimulating to a more earnest search in the sacred word for those hid treasures only discovered by the devout and eager searcher after truth.

We cannot, however, refrain from condemning the injustice of quoting at length two pieces from the pen of a living poet without the slightest acknowledgment, and trust that if the book arrives at a second edition this omission will be corrected.

The Lamplighter. Seventy-third thousand. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co.

This popular book comes to us in its latest edition, still unclaimed by its able authoress. It belongs to a style of light literature, where serious truth is associated with romance, and indicates a decided advance in the popular taste from that to which some eminent publishers have pandered by the diffusion of their yellow-covered trash.

The story of Gerty and Uncle True, contained in the first fifteen chapters, will always make the book a favorite. Many a mother will read to her little ones the story of the old fashioned lamplighter, whom they never see, but whose mysterious appearance children used to watch, as with torch and ladder he appeared in the gathering darkness, and slowly climbed one post after another, lighting up the dim oil lamps through the street, until he disappeared at the farthest corner. With the death of the lamplighter, the narrative begins to dim, although the mysterious Mr. Phillips and odd Miss Patty Pace are marked characters, which relieve somewhat the mass of people, who seem only introduced to prolong the story. Finely drawn scenes are scattered here and there, and the story only escapes being exciting, by a want of skillful arrangement and condensation.

Lectures on the True, the Beautiful, and the Good. By M. V. COUSIN. Increased by an Appendix on French Art. Translated, with the approbation of M. Cousin, by O. W. WIGHT. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 346 and 348 Broadway, and 16 Little Britain, London. 1854. pp. 391.

Cousin, in a single sentence in the preface, defines the object of this work;— "to collect in a body of doctrine the theories scattered in [his] works, and to sum up, in just proportions, what men are pleased to call [his] philosophy. The lectures in this volume, he says, present a regular exposition of the doctrine which was at first fixed in our mind, which has not ceased to preside over our labors." This work is just what was needed, for it contains, he assures us, an exact expression of his convictions on the fundamental points of philosophic science.

Cousin has been represented as an Eclectic; which indeed he is, but his electicism is not a mere collection of doctrines, but a system of truth which