fall on woman herself, and as woman is preeminently the conservator of our social life, so long as she occupies her true position and exercises her true womanly influence, when she passes out of that position and loses that influence, all society must suffer. When she ceases to be a woman and becomes only another man, she of course resigns her womanly position and influence. To lift her out of her position as the loving and beloved queen of home and priestess of all the charities and felicities of our domestic life, into that of a political thinker, schemer, debater, and agitator, would be as ruinous to society as is her degradation in heathen countries into a mere plaything or servant. None rejoice more than we in the exaltation of woman, in her emancipation from the wrongs inherited from pagan forms of society, and her assumption of her true place of dignity, equality, and power in our social life. The idea of a hard line of separation between man and woman has passed away. In our day women and men are really companions; the home has acquired the ascendency; the women of the family are the man's chosen society; the wife is his chief associate, his most confidential friend, and often his most trusted counselor. This is the true human life, and for it we are preeminently indebted to that Christianity which so admirably defines and limits the true relations of the sexes, but which is so generally discarded by the reforming women of America. Can woman afford to give up this position of special and peculiar associate, friend, and counselor, for that of a mere equal or competitor of man in the strifes, agitations, prejudices, passions, and places of political life? Can she enter into the political arena and not lose her position of home ascendency, of the loved and loving confident and friend? Can she mingle with the undignified turmoil of a contested election, and in the discreditable scenes that too often disgrace the polls, and return unscathed in her womanly delicacy, refinement, and modesty, to preside as the chaste and unsullied priestess of the sanctities of home? And can society exchange the quiet but all pervading and all-powerful influence of retired, refined, modest womanhood, for the masculine boldness, forwardness, and coarseness of political women, without suffering a demoralization of which we can not now perhaps imagine?

But we believe this demand is made on mistaken views of social relations, and especially of the relations of the sexes. The great pendulum of popular opinion is perpetually swinging to extremes. The awakened thought of modern society finds woman isolated, sepa. rated from man, the instrument of his pleasure, or the subject of his oppressions, and in the heat of reformation would hurry her on out of all womanly character, and into spheres for which Nature no more intended her than she intended man to be a woman. From the reformation of certain wrongs, the agitation passes on to the demand of certain imaginary rights. From the discussion of certain abuses the debate merges into the claim of intellectual, physical, and political equality of the sexes. For the abolition of every species of wrong or injustice toward women we heartily labor and pray; but some of these imaginary rights we as heartily deny, among which is the right of any woman to lose her loveliness, modesty, gentleness, and womanliness. We deny the right of woman to leave the

queenly place in Christian society to which the Creator assigned her, and for which her true nature fits her, to usurp spheres of action in which she would inevi tably lose the last remnants of that grace which distinguishes her from the opposite sex. We have but little patience with the whole question of the compara tive abilities of the two sexes. They are incompar able subjects. There is no such thing as equality, inferiority, or superiority. They are two different beings; they have two different spheres of action and duty which blend and harmonize in the highest and holiest purposes of human society. "Nature has decreed that woman shall be the eternal contrast of man, that man may be charmed by the contrast, attracted by his curiosity, and instigated by his desires." Woman is preeminent in her own nature and sphere, adapted to duties which it is impossible for man to perform. Man is preeminent in his nature and sphere, made for positions and services which it is impossible for woman to fill. Both together make the perfect human being, and by blending their various natures and capabilities they create, develop, and perpetuate human society, and "these two are one." It is on this unity that we would base representation and government. Government is not for the individual, but for society-and the unit in society is not the individual, but the family. That unit is represented always and every-where in our Government, when the husband and the father utters the voice of the family at the polls and in the counsels of the nation. We agree with the eminent Frenchman, who has been a life-long advocate of "the emancipation of woman," but who, on the very last day of his life, rejoiced in the action of the National Assembly closing the door of the clubs against women. For some time to come," says Leon Gozlan, "it will be yet a good thing that there are two sexes; at a later time we shall see. Till then let us respect customs and traditions, and among them the custom that demands that women shall preside at home, give birth to children, and endure the annoyance of bringing them up."

We close this article, already too long, with a modified quotation from the same author: "Women who are not yet devoid of sense, women of mind whom bad books have not yet degraded, women of heart who have not yet allowed the chaste fire of the love of family life to become extinct in their bosoms-of the family, the first society created by God and destined to remain the last of any on earth-women of all classes who still smile at the smile of their husbands and weep with their sick children, who enhance all our joys and diminish all our pains by their sole presence at our domestic hearth," these are not the women who in France, or England, or America, are demanding participation in the French clubs, or representation in the British Parliament, or that "the word male be struck out of all our National and State Constitutions." We are satisfied that if this proposed revolution of society were submitted to the vote of the intelligent, refined, thoughtful women of our country it would be overwhelmingly defeated, and yet it is not at all improbable that the experiment will have to be tried, and our country will have to pass the ordeal of this new phase of civilization as she has had to pass through so many others.

character nor arrest their operation."

ogy,

and in the intellectual world by his "History of the Intellectual Development of Europe," and "The Civil Policy of America." As an enthusiastic student of nature, and as a lucid and able lecturer in the departments of science which he represents in the University of New York, he has few if any superiors in our country. As a writer he is voluminous, a careful observer, a clear thinker, in style easy, graceful, and perspicuous. It is a pleasure to read almost any thing that comes from his pen, as far as the scholarly style and composition are concerned. There are multitudes, however, who would refuse to accept him as a teacher and guide in the interpretation of history, or even as a final scientific authority in determining the relations existing between man and nature. In one

sense of the word Prof. Draper's mind and philosophy

are materialistic-that is, he delights to study man in his physical nature and material relations, and to determine how far the individual and society at large are influenced by the material forces that are operating around them and upon them. In some of his views he seems almost to make man and society a mere creature of these surrounding circumstances, and human history to consist of a series of effects or sequences produced by the action of material causes on the nature and necessities of man. We hear him say "Nature will dominate over man, and will constrain his actions"-"The laws of the world are unswerving, un

varying in their operation"—" There is nothing priv.

ileged in the universe," etc.--and we feel that the author is delivering us over as men and nations, bound hand and foot, into the tyranny of the irresistible forces of the universe in which we live. But as we read him more closely, and study his doctrines of man and nature more minutely, we find that he is only teaching us one important and true side of our nature, life, and history in this world where we are inevitably acted upon by the forces and influences of the world in which we are living. Hence he asks, "Must we submit ourselves unresistingly to the tyranny of Nature, and accept things as they come with stoical indif ference, or Mohammedan resignation? Has not science taught us that we may deliver ourselves from such evils, and increase at once our happiness and power by a right interpretation of Nature-by availing ourselves of the unvarying operation of those laws which we can not directly resist? Opposing conditions we may reconcile; conflicts that are irrepressible we may manage; disasters we may avert, or even turn into blessings." And, again, he says, "Numerous are the historical incidents to which we might refer in proof of our capability of delivering ourselves from the

The volume before us we accept as an important contribution toward a thorough understanding of the development of our history, and especially of the causes and influences which culminated in the recent rebellion. No wise man can deny for a moment that physical circumstances have had a vast amount of influence in the historical development of our nation, and that the facts of differences of origin and character in the early settlers, the influence of climate, of location, of geographical features, such as soil, temperature, natural products, mineral deposits, etc., have been powerful forces in making our history, and originating and perpetuating our sectional conflicts and antagonisms. To such influences Prof. Draper gives a large share of attention in the present volume, though he by no means confines himself to these, but aims to give a broad and comprehensive view of the origin and significance of our recent conflict.

THE BIBLE LOOKING-GLASS; A Mirror for all Peo

ple, Reflector and Teacher of the Scriptures. Square 12mo. Pp. 566. $4. Cincinnati: Published by Howe's Subscription Book Concern.-This is an interesting and valuable volume, and will be found to be a popular consists of six books in two parts. The first and and instructive addition to the family library. It second books are made up of religious emblems and allegories, accompanied by a series of emblematic engravings, with explanations, miscellaneous observations, and religious reflections, designed to illustrate divine truth in accordance with the cardinal principles of Christianity. The third book, entitled The Christian Pilgrim, is a condensed account of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, with explanatory notes by various

authors. The fourth book is a series of Christian similitudes copiously illustrated by engravings. These four books were prepared chiefly by John W. Barber, author of several historical and religious works. The fifth book is entitled The Sunday Book, and consists of a judicious selection of articles in prose and poetry from the best writers, arranged by Henry Howe, author of several historical works. The volume is concluded by a brief biography of Thomas Gray, author of the Elegy, and the elegy itself illustrated by thirty-four engravings. The book is thus a sort of olla podrida of good reading matter, in a large variety, adapted to the family. It is sold, we believe, only on subscription.

HISTORY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. By Abel Stevens, LL. D. Vol. III. 12mo. Pp. 510. New York: Carlton & Porter. Cincinnati: Poe & Hitchcock. What more need we say of this book than that it is the third volume of "Stevens's fascinating History of Methodism," a continuation in the same charming style, beautiful diction, and skillful grouping that characterized the previous volumes, of the narrative

of that marvelous religious movement which the "London Quarterly Review" pronounced "the most wonderful instance of Church development which the world's history has yet shown?" Dr. Stevens justly and worthily occupies the place of the historian of Methodism, and will certainly also take a high rank among the historians of the world. It is not often we find so happy a meeting together of a writer worthy of his theme and a theme so worthy of the best powers of the writer. As the result, we are receiving what we honestly believe to be an incomparable history of an incomparable ecclesiastical movement. The present volume contains but one book, and continues the narrative from the General Conference of 1792 to the General Conference of 1804. "In the two preceding volumes," says the author, "I have recorded the planting of the Church, and sufficiently

defined its theological and ecclesiastical systems; in the present the story proceeds directly along its chronological line, suspended somewhat abruptly for the convenient size of the volume, but continued, with no further interruption, in the next, which is now passing through the press." We trust these intensely-interesting volumes will find their way into every Methodist household, and are quite sure that multitudes in other denominations will not deprive themselves of this valuable contribution to ecclesiastical history.

BIBLE TEACHINGS IN NATURE. By Rev. Hugh Macmillan, Author of "First Forms of Vegetation." 12mo. Pp. 344. $2. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Cincinnati: R. W. Carroll & Co.-This is a volume of

a kind of which we want as many more as the talents and opportunities of wise and good men can give us. It is nature speaking the same language and uttering

the same truths as Revelation. For a time her voice in behalf of the Creator has been somewhat hushed, and her utterances, passing through the lips of some men tending toward skepticism and bent only on the study of naked and passionless science, have been confused and contradictory. Recent revelations and demands of science have also for a time staggered even some minds who have been in the habit of rising through Nature up to Nature's God, and since the days of Paley, and Dick, and Chalmers, the world about us has been left very much in the hands of mere men of science, who discovered new and marvelous facts, suggested new theories, and shook old foundations. But it was only a period of transition, during which Nature was revealing to the diligent student new and almost startling secrets, and Truth was waiting to arrange these new facts in order, and clothe them with language, that they might join in the harmony of the anthem which the creation has ever been rendering to the Creator. It is time now to embody these new facts in popular language, and to avail ourselves of these new revelations of nature for lifting the people into higher and grander conceptions of the great author of all these wonderful works. Several books of this kind have recently appeared, of which this is one of the best. It is not a regular treatise on the relations of science and revelation, or on the testimony of nature to the power and goodness of the Creator, but a series of lessons "gathered at random in different fields of natural science," and

written in a style rather too rich and luxuriant than otherwise. We wish our young people would culti vate a taste for reading books like this, abounding in most interesting facts and suggestive of most excellent thoughts.

OLD ENGLAND; its Scenery, Art, and People. By James M. Hoppin, Professor in Yale College. 16mo. Pp. 468. $2. New Yk: Hurd & Houghton. Cin cinnati: Robert Clarke & Co.-We have only room to say that this is one of the most readable and satisfactory books on "Old England" that has fallen into our hands for a long time. It is the work of a traveler who took time enough to visit nearly every county, and to make the entire circuit of the land, and carried with him a talent to observe nearly all that was worth

seeing, and to describe sufficiently well what he saw, without much pretension to artistic arrangement or style.

MISS RAVENEL'S CONVERSION FROM SECESSION TO LOYALTY. By J. W. De Forest, Author of "European Acquaintance," "Seacliff," etc. 12mo. Pp. 521. $2. New York: Harper & Bros. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co. This is a novel which, of course, we have not read, but which, from glancing at a few pages, we judge is intended to be quizzical, piquant, and racy in its thoughts with regard to both sections of our country.

HENRY VIII AND HIS COURT; or, Catherine Parr. An Historical Romance. By L. Muhlbach, Authoress of "Frederick the Great and His Court," etc. From the German by Rev. H. N. Pierce, D. D. 12mo. Pp. 418. $2. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Cincinnati: R.

W. Carroll & Co.-We have, on several occasions, noMuhlbach, and pronounce them decidedly the best of ticed these works of the great German authoress, Miss their kind. They are very entertaining, and, in spite of the mingling of romance, are valuable as careful studies of history, the real characters in them having been well studied from the detailed chronicles of the time.

MISCELLANEOUS.-The London Quarterly Reien, April, 1867. The Edinburgh Review, April, 1867. Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, May, 1867. The North British Review, June, 1867.-These are the American editions by the Leonard Scott Publishing Company, No. 140 Fulton-street, New York. They ought to be in the hands of every American scholar. Catalogue of Albion College, Albion, Michigan—President, Rev. George B. Jocelyn, D. D.; Students, 302 Eighteenth Annual Announcement of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania. Sixth Annual Report of the Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia. Catalogue of the Oakland Female Seminary, Hillsboro, O.—Rev. Joseph M'D. Mathews, D. D., Principal. Minutes of the Indiana Conference Sunday School Convention, Bloomington, May, 1867. Sermons by Henry O. Shel don.-A collection of sermons by one of the venerable preachers of the West, which will repay the reading, and give the reader something to think about. Use of Illustration in Sunday School Teaching. By Rev. James M. Freeman, A. M.-A little pamphlet that every Sunday school teacher should read. First Lessons in Spelling and Reading. For the Sunday school. Carlton & Porter.

The