the times. The pamphlet named above gives us still another occasion to refer to "the war." We have read the pamphlet, as we do everything coming from the accomplished and felicitous pen of its author-a gentleman who deservedly takes a position in the front rank of our denominational writers. The first discourse amplifies the obvious point, that slavery is the essential cause of the great rebellion at the South; and is severe in its rebuke of the American Church as faithless and inefficient in its treatment of an institution pronounced even by a deist as "the sum of all villanies." Had the church been true to its trust, the people would never have become insensible to the sinfulness of slavery-and insensibility to the wrong is the root of the treason which now threatens the stability of the republic. The following paragraph is certainly unequivocal:

"The American Church was not equal to the emergency. It bent before the roaring beast it ought to have taken by the horns; and it apologized for the system which even a deist had pronounced the sum of all villanies.' That sacred institution which Jesus Christ had founded among men, as a refuge for the weak,— as the hope of the merciful,-as the means of breaking every yoke, and setting every captive free,-even that humbled itself before the arrogance of slavery, and held its peace; while liberty fell in the streets, and honor veiled her face. It was the saddest, most shameful, most perilous day of our history, when the Christianity of this land was bribed and badgered into submission to slavery. No-there was a sadder, more shameful, more perilous day even than that: the day that the most venerable bodies of the Church conspired to pronounce slavery divine, and to stigmatize as infidels the faithful men who suffered for freedom! I suppose it is now clear, to the minds of American freemen, that the Church committed a great error, if not a great crime, in having made any terms with slavery. If the pulpit and the religious press had refused to compromise with slaveholding,if the Churches had excluded slaveholders from the communion,if every minister, ordained to the service of Christ, had labored to array this wrong before men under the odium of Divine condemnation,-it could not have been perpetuated to this day. The voice of religion would have so ratified the moral convictions of our people, and lent such authority and vigor to the best feelings of our nature, that slavery would have been extinguished, peaceably and imperceptibly, by a process similar to that which eradicated it from England. With vigorous moral causes working for its removal, the subject would have entered less into our politics,it would have had little or no opportunity to vitiate the government, the rancorous hostility between the North and South

would have been averted, and treason would never have dragged our flag to the dust. The moment the Church consented to ignore or tolerate the enormous sin, slavery began to be dominant in our politics, and the government began to be prostituted to its purposes. In private circles, it became fashionable to apologize for slavery, and to deny or extenuate the abuses which the system involves. In public life, the path of ambition became the path of subserviency and compromise. This despotism came to possess the offices and the honors of the republic, and it dispensed them to those who could abase themselves most, as the tools of its wicked policy." (pp. 10, 11.)

In the second discourse, the author explains the mystery of slavery agitation-shows why neither party could let the question alone. We have room for but a brief extract:

"Now there are men, I dare say, who will never cease to marvel at the perverse obstinacy of the American people, in keeping up agitation. Why couldn't they let slavery alone? Why couldn't slavery let them alone? Why couldn't we have had peace? Why has no power been given us to put down this 'everlasting negro question?' Why won't men let it alone? and why, of all other men, won't our minister let it alone? The mystery is, doubtless, very great; but shall we not make an attempt, this pleasant morning, to look into it, and gain at least a clue to the reason? Suppose you plant Canada thistles on one side of your garden, and a bed of strawberry plants on the opposite side, and charge them not to meddle with each other! You will soon find that they will meddle with each other-not because they are wilful, but because each must obey the law of its own nature. Now slave society and free society have their peculiar instincts, and each developes agreeably to its own law. They must encroach upon each other, they must conflict, they must quarrel; and, what God and nature have thus made hostile, we cannot join together in harmony." (p. 21.)

The right and the duty of the clergy to discuss the moral and religious bearings of slavery have been stated so frequently, and the truth is so palpable, that we were hardly prepared to be interested by any further illustration of the point. Yet the subject is made fresh and somewhat piquant by the following paragraph: "When you employ a lawyer to conduct a cause, do you undertake to instruct him how to extract his testimony, or how to make his plea? Or, do you concede that he is the best judge of his own business; and that any interference on your part would be both a reflection on his intelligence, and a damage to your interest? When you call a physician to minister to your malady, do you, at the same time, profess to understand the case better

than he does, or offer to dictate what remedies shall be employed? If you actually suppose yourself wiser than the physician, you would not send for him at all. Now you employ a man to stand in the pulpit, as a teacher of the Christian religion, and of the moral obligations of mankind. In engaging him to teach, you are supposed to believe him qualified to teach. You believe him qualified, because he has made religion and morals his special study. You have, yourself, general impressions and convictions on those subjects, (as you have general impressions and convictions in relation to law and medicine,) but you have not qualified yourself to be a teacher of one, more than of the other. And yet-(now mark your inconsistency,)-when that man, whom you have placed in the pulpit expressly to teach, happens to offend some of your prejudices, you tell him that he has made a mistake, that he has no business to say such and such things, -and sometimes you even deny matters of fact, merely because they had not come to your knowledge. By this course, you reverse the relations of the parties; for, whereas you promoted me awhile ago to be your teacher, in relation to the specific subject which I had made my life study, you are now assuming to be mine. But, the worst phase of your censure is, that you assume to know my duty better than I know it myself, which is an aggression upon my personal liberty, to which I can submit on no account." (pp. 31, 32.)

With reference to the present crisis, a brief word of our own. The rulers at Washington can have but one purpose, and this not the abolition of slavery. The maintenance of the federal government in the enforcement of its laws, is all that has any right to engage their official attention. But the English revolution that brought the head of Charles the First to the block did not end where its first and "constitutional" movers intended it should; the American revolution was based upon a moderate claim; it issued in something essentially different-the demand for representation as the condition of taxation did not even look towards independence; the Nationel Assembly in France that simply demanded that all the landed estates should be taxed for the support of the government, had no thought of the levelling processes that were to abolish, for a time, royalty and rank. Our rulers and and our people can have, at present, only a constitutional aim. Something, however, assures us, that God has another and different purpose. Is this the utter eradication of the cause of our national calamity? In any event, may God's will

be done!

4. Life in Spain: Past and Present. By Walter Thornbury. With Illustrations. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1860, pp. 388.

This belongs to the class of books which are all the better for what in most cases is a defect-a_rambling style. The author gives an account of his travels in Spain, making each important sight or event a text illustrative of the past or present of that least known of European nations. He seems to have started without a settled purpose beyond that of pleasure, and is content to see what shall come before him, panorama like, as he rambles over Spain. Frequent experience in hotel life, suggests an amusing sketch of Spanish dinners and hotels. A visit to the "Merced, once a convent, now the picture museum of Seville," and "the choicest nest of Murillos in the world," inspires an instructive chapter on Murillo and his Picture Children." A sight of La Mancha of course introduces a sketch biographical and critical of Cervantes. This portion of the book contains fresh suggestions on novel writing, its history and uses. Only a careful and philosophic reader of fiction could have composed the chapter on "The Spain of Cervantes and the Spain of Gil Blas." The author's style is sometimes too flippant, and occasionally affects quaintness. On the whole, he has made a book richly worth reading.

5. The Wits and Beaux of Society. By Grace and Philip Wharton. With Illustrations from Drawings by H. K. Browne and James Godwin. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1861. pp. 481.

In its way, this is a history of England from the Restoration to the death of Sydney Smith. It presents the funny phase of English Society, from the ascendency of the eminent courtier, Villiers, the second Duke of Buckingham, to that of the eccentric Scotch divine whose sermons are dull and prosy, but whose ponderous review-articles and metaphysical essays are sometimes almost frivolous in the excess of humor. The stern and gloomy reign of the Puritans-during which neither joke, repartee, nor shadow of merriment was tolerated-by a necessary reaction, gave existence to a race of Wits whose scintillations . sparkle all through the succeeding British annals. The "Royal Wit," who came with the Restoration, opens a new vein in the heretofore sullen and melancholy body of the English nation. Unfortunately, this otherwise agreeable variation in the experience of our ancestors, was too often at the expense of morality, religion, and sometimes even of the show of decency. It is painful to be compelled to smile at the pranks of Rochester, Beau Fielding, Hervey, and Sheridan. In our own age, and especially

in our country, wit and humor are very generally the allies of virtue the foes of vice and hypocracy. Not so in the times of the Georges in England. The wits flourished in the sunshine of the Court. They were apologists for "reigning" vice, seldom its censors. Their career had much to do in giving direction to the current of English history. One's faith in an overruling providence must be strong to believe the world is better off because the "Wits and Beaux," sketched in the book before us, have lived in it.

6. The New American Cyclopædia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge. Edited by George Ripley and Charles A. Dana. Volume XII. Mozambique-Parr. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1861.

The distracting cry of war that has put an embargo on nearly every book enterprise, does not prevent the prompt appearance of volumes due of the New Cyclopædia. It is one of the few works, that will find a market even in these times of peculiar business depression. Let us confess, that while the times found us profoundly ignorant in the literature of war, the Cyclopædia has done something towards educating us in that now quite essential department of knowledge. Such articles as " Army," "Navy," "Fortifications," "Gunnery" and "Militia," scattered through the twelve volumes thus far issued, have been peculiarly acceptable. The volume just issued has among the larger articles, those on "Music," "Mythology," "Naturalization," "Navigation," "Netherlands," "New York," " Ohio," "Pacific Ocean," Papal States," "Paris." Two articles on "New Orleans" and Mississippi River," are timely. Preliminary reading on the same subject somewhat qualified us to appreciate the accuracy and thoroughness of the article on "Nineveh." The New Cyclopædia sustains its reputation for fidelity, impartiality and discrimination. Our standing advice is, purchase the volumes as they appear.

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7. Self Made Men. By Chas. C. B. Seymour. New York: Harper & Brothers.

Such a book is a spur to young ambition, holding before it models for example, and giving practical illustrations of the fruits of industrial energy. It gives the lives of over sixty distinguished persons who have attained eminence in spite of the adverse circumstances of birth and fortune. Parents should put the book into the hands of their sons. It might do them incal

culable good.