After leaving his pastoral charge in Andover, Dr. Edwards was installed over the Salem street Church in Boston, where, in consequence of ill-health, he remained only two years. Though repeatedly called to important and responsible fields of labor, he now deemed it his duty to devote the energies of his mind and heart to the cause of Temperance. Seven years of earnest life were given almost exclusively to this great enterprise, as General Agent and Secretary of the American Temperance Society. The remarkable success of his efforts are well known, and will ever be remembered. He, more than any other man, will be honored as the originator and successful advocate of the Temperance Reformation. He urged on this reform by religious considerations and motives, which he ever regarded as the only motives adapted to produce permanent results. Dr. Edwards was President of Andover Theological Seminary five years; in which office "he exerted a powerful and beneficial influence, of which no record can be made." From 1842 to 1849 he was chiefly occupied in labors for the Sanctification of the Sabbath. His Sabbath Manual and Temperance Manual are known to millions of our people, many of whom will, doubtless, read, with great interest, this sketch of his Life and Labors as a practical philanthropist, who was ever diligent in labor for the good of his fellow-men. The last years of his life were employed in preparing a simple commentary on the Bible, designed "to teach the reader, as he goes along, the meaning of certain words and phrases which he might not understand." He completed his comments on the New Testament, and on the Old Testament through the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm, when God called him from his labors on earth to His service in the heavens. The biography of this faithful servant of God will extend the influence of his abundant labors, and be a memorial of his good name to future generations. Woman in the Nineteenth Century, and Kindred Papers relating to the Sphere, Condition and Duties of Woman. By MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI. Edited by her brother, ARTHUR B. FULLER. With an Introduction by HORACE GREELEY. Boston: John P. Jewett and Co. 1855. pp. 428. New Haven: Thomas H. Pease. The rare intellectual gifts and cultivation of Margaret Fuller, as she is best known, are generally acknowledged. The first part of this volume is a re-publication of the treatise which gives the title to the book, and appeared, in 1843, in "The Dial." The second part consists of several miscellaneous papers on the duties and responsibilities of woman, some of which have been before published. The last part of the vol ume embraces some private papers and letters, showing the mind and heart of this distinguished woman in the ordinary positions of life. The Contrast between Good and Bad Men: Illustrated by the Biography and Truths of the Bible. By GARDNER SPRING, LL. D. 2 vols. New York: M. W. Dodd. 1855. New Haven: F. T. Jarman, Sab. S. Dep. These volumes are designed to present an impartial view of the character and destiny, the life, death and eternity, of good and bad men, as they appear on the pages of inspiration. The great question is propounded, and its import unfolded, "On which side does the advantage lie?" when the actual condition of good and bad men is carefully considered; which is in the right, and which in the wrong; which is the wise, and which the unwise? This practical inquiry finds an answer in favor of religion in all the various delineations of character which are presented. These volumes are well adapted to fix the attention and awaken the serious thought of the reader. The attractive and impressive style in which this work is written,though Dr. Spring always writes gracefully and forcibly,—and the ever-abiding importance of the truths presented, will secure for it a very general and careful reading. We doubt not but these volumes will be a means of great spiritual good to multitudes; and that, by them, Dr. Spring will preach, in demonstration of the spirit and of power, to many who are denied the privilege of receiving truth from his living lips. Letters to the Right Rev. John Hughes, Roman Catholic Bishop of New York. 1855. The Letters of Kirwan, when published originally in the New York Observer, attracted very general attention; and from their first appearance in book-form, have had a wide circulation. at home and abroad. They have not, however, been more extensively read than they deserve to be. Having been revised and enlarged by an introductory letter, showing that "Romanism is not the Religion for America," and the addition of the Author's valuable essay on "The Decline of Popery, and its Causes," they are now handsomely re-published by the Harpers, which will secure for them still greater influence, and introduce them to family libraries where they have not before been retained. The character of Doctor Murray assures the reader of the correctness of his statements, while the eloquent earnestness and force of his arguments cannot fail to convince all who are not blind to the light, and invulnerable to the power of truth. Modern Mysteries Explained and Exposed. In four parts. I.-Clairvoyant Revelations of A. J. Davis. II.-Phenomena of Spiritualism, Explained and Exposed. III.-Evidence that the Bible is given by inspiration of the Spirit of God, as compared with the evidence that these manifestations are from the spirits of men. IV.-Clairvoyant Revelations of Emanuel Swedenborg. By Rev. A. MAHAN, first President of Cleveland University. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co. 1855. New Haven: T. H. Pease. 12mo. pp. 466. Though made up of four distinct essays, the grand aim of this work is to explain the accumulating mass of mysterious phenomena known under the general name of Spiritualism. It is the latest and most elaborate treatise that has been issued for this purpose, and coming from a writer of some reputation in the departments of Theology and Metaphysics, it will be welcomed by thousands whose minds have been puzzled by these modern mysteries. As related to the main topics, the first part of the book is devoted to a critique of Davis' early volume, "Nature's Divine Revelations;" than which, however, a much more interesting subject of inquiry would be, the nature of those peculiar powers which the Poughkeepsie Seer did at one time unquestionably possess, if he does not now. The author sees in Davis very little to interest, and nothing to commend. Pretense and inposture, coupled with clairvoyance, explain his whole career. The fourth part is a similar superficial examination of the Revelations of Swedenborg, with a similar result. He regards the Swedish Seer "simply as a clairvoyant, whose visions were to him real, but were the exclusive subjective result of an abnormal odylic physical and mental state, and utterly void of any claims to objective reality." The third part is a statement, in the ordinary form, of the common arguments in defense of Christianity. In this form, it really has little claim to a place in the book. It is not, as intimated in the title page, a comparison of the respective evidences for Christianity and Spiritualism, so much as an independent argument for the former. As such, it presents nothing original, and the same argument has often been much more forcibly presented by others. In fact, its real force is much weakened by being presented in connection with a directly opposite course of argument against other professed revelations. But, as we have said, it is as an Exposition of Spiritualism that the book chiefly claims our attention. The author is quite confident that he has untied the knot, and undertakes to demonstrate that Spiritualism is in fact not Spiritualism, but simply a new natural science. In other words, fully admitting the facts, both the physical phenomena and the intelligent commu nications, he maintains that they are all explainable on natural principles. Assuming the existence in nature of a powerful force bearing mutual relations to both mind and matter, and more or less cognizable in the phenomena of mesmerism and clairvoyance, he refers the entire phenomena of the "manifestations" to its subtle agency; the physical portions of them resulting from its action upon matter, and the marks of intelligence from the workings of the same "mundane force" as connected with mind, but, of course, solely with mind in the body. No communications, he lays down as a fundamental datum, are ever received, except such as may have been derived by means of this force from living minds, generally from those present in the circles. The "mundane force" explains everything. The argument in support of this theory is conducted with earnestness; in many respects with fairness, and generally with ability. But, though often ingenious, and to a degree plausible, it will, if we mistake not, leave the majority of readers as much in the dark as to the real origin of the phenomena, as they were before. In fact, the theory of this book, so far from removing the mystery, only enhances it. For, to the apprehension of most people, who have drawn their ideas of the relations of the present to the spirit world from the Bible, it will appear far less a marvel that such phenomena should arise from the intervention of spirits, than from a blind "mundane force," even if such a force were proved to exist. It is true, our author is quite positive as to its existence, and always finds it a universal solvent of difficulties. Indeed, the ease with which he unties the hardest knots by means of this force, often reminds one of the ready explanations given by the old philosophers of the fact that water rises in a pump, viz: that "Nature abhors a vacuum;"-a mode of verbal philosophizing always more facile than satisfactory. To shift the case, then, by such a process, from the jurisdiction of Spiritualism, to that of science, rather awakens than satisfies curiosity, and adds, rather than diminishes, the interest of the subject. If the science of mind, or of the relations of mind to matter, involves such phenomena as the records of the "manifestations" present, surely the human mind itself is the most occult of mysteries, and our mental philosophers, with all their lore and acuteness, are yet but in the merest rudiments of their science. Is odyle an entity? Is there in nature a subtle medium or force, as Reichenbach and others maintain, the ready go-between of mind and matter, the source alike of modern and of ancient mysteries, and of the marvels of mesmerism and clairvoyance? This question is one worthy of the most earnest investigation. Once demonstrate its existence and settle its fundamental laws, and a new science is created. The depths of mind are then penetrated as readily as are time and space by the laws of geology and astronomy. But, unfortunately, this "mundane force," which forms the key of the author's entire theory, is as yet unrecognized by sciScientific men have scarcely yet heard of odyle, much less received it as a force in nature. On the other hand, unscientific men will be far more likely, in accordance with what they suppose to be the evidence of their senses, to believe with the men of all ages, in spirits and spirit-intercourse, than in the mere workings of such a force. Hence, if the author's aim is to convince, his explanations, we fear, will prove equally unsatisfactory, both to men of science, and to acknowledged Spiritualists. Too unauthorized in its scientific assumptions for the former, it is too sweeping and dogmatical for the latter. If his aim, however, is profit, possibly, on the current of the popular interest in this subject, the book may have a fair circulation; especially as, in such matters, the mass of men are apt, from their very fear of being thought credulous, to prove themselves, in an opposite direction, the most credulous of men, and to accept, without question, hypotheses the most preposterous, if only they accord with their previous opinions or prejudices. To such men, the present exposé, like the multitudes that have preceded it, may be satisfactory; at least, until it is supplanted by some new hypothesis. For, in truth, not the least remarkable fact in the history of the "manifestations," is the diversity and contradictoriness of the explanations that have been offered. Each essayist has a theory of his own, and the progressive development of these hypotheses is quite in accordance with the "progression" theory of Spiritualism itself. "Transparent humbug," "gross delusion," wicked imposture, clever trickery, joint-cracking, secret mechanism, involuntary muscular pressure, duality of mind or brain, mesmeric power, mundane force, abnormal nervous condition, satanic agency, spirit-intercourse, and we know not how many other theories, have each in turn been positively set forth as conclusive solutions of the mystery. But, from the Buffalo doctors to Faraday, and from Mattison to Mahan, no explanation has yet been broached, that either has not proved to be absurd in itself, or has only tended to increase the difficulty. This very diversity of explanations is presumptive evidence of their general unsoundness. We had hoped that this work of President Mahan would throw some clearer light on |