the Board of Directors to publish a History of the Moravian missions among the North American Indians, from their commencement, 128 years ago. The Society received last year over $10,000; its net capital is $153,377.

Historical and Biographical Works. J. N. Carrigan, First Settlements of the French in the Mississippi Valley, second series, from the Mss. in the archives of the Marine at Paris.-S. Mordecai, Virginia, especially Richmond, in By-Gone Days; second edition. Winthrop Sargent, Life and Career of Major André.-The Life of Samuel Adams, by one of his great-grandsons, is announced.

Rev. Dr. Dorsey, late President of the Methodist Protestant Conference of Virginia, is preparing a history of the Methodist Protestant Church.

The Massachusetts Historical Society are to publish a volume of original and unpublished letters of Washington, collected by Edward Everett; and also a collection of documents relating to the early history and men of the colony, under the supervision of Mr. Winthrop.

H. B. Dawson, of New York, is preparing a History of New York during the Revolution, from manuscripts in the Mercantile Library Association. A grammar of the Flat Head, or Selish Dialect, by Mengarini, will form the 2d volume of the Library of American Linguistics. A memoir of Rev. John Brainerd, brother of David, is in preparation by Rev. Thos. Brainerd, D.D., of Philadelphia.

LIBRARIES IN YALE COLLEGE.—

Library of the College, exclusive of pamphlets,..

Linonian Library,.

Brothers' Library,

Medical and Law Libraries,..

Vols.

38,000

12,000

12,000

5,000

67,000

The number of unbound pamphlets is estimated at seven thousand. The Am. Oriental Society has about 1,800 books and pamphlets, deposited in the College Library. No Catalogue of the College Library has been printed since 1823. The oldest printed book is Augustine, De Vita Christiana, A.D. 1467, from the press of Ulric Zell, of Mayence. The library funds yield about $1,500 per annum. The most valuable recent addition was about 4,000 vols. in 1854 from the collection of Prof. Thilo, of Halle, chiefly in ecclesiastical history.

The Boston City Library, founded eight years since, by the liberality of Joshua Bates, Esq., of London, now has about 100,000 volumes, while Harvard only has about 92,000. The last year it received an accession of 8,000 volumes. Theodore Parker's library of about 16,000 vols. will soon be added. Mr. Jonathan Phillips left to it $20,000. Prof. Ticknor has recently given 2,000 volumes. The daily circulation is 508 volumes. About 18,000 persons are registered as readers. The annual expenses are $30,000.

Three valuable manuscripts of Rev. Thos. Hooker, of Hartford, have been discovered and deciphered by Mr. J. Hammond Trumbull. The first consists of the notes to Mr. Hooker's first and second Election Sermons, 1688, 1639. The second is a long letter to Gov. Winthrop, of Mass., in defence of Conn. This is published in the Conn. Hist. Society's collections. The third is Mr. Hooker's Thanksgiving Sermon, preached Oct. 4, 1638; text was 1 Sam. vii, 12.

Literary and Critical Notices of Books.

THEOLOGICAL AND BIBLICAL LITERATURE.

A Dictionary of the Bible, comprising its Antiquities, Biography, Geogra phy, and Natural History. Edited by WILLIAM SMITH, LL.D., Editor of the Dictionaries of Greek and Roman Antiquities, etc. Vol. I. A to J. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1860. 8vo. Pp. vii. pp. 1176.

This work is constructed according to the plan of the Editor's Classical Dictionaries, and is designed to render the same service in the study of the Bible, which they have afforded in the study of the Greek and Roman writers. It is no mere compilation, made by irresponsible and nameless persons, under the sanction of Dr. Smith's name, but it is the joint product of a number of scholars, executing each an assigned portion, which bears his name, and for which he is responsible. There are, it is true, evils connected with this multiplicity of authorship. What the work may gain in completeness, it may lose in homogeneousness. The collaborators are not likely to have precisely the same theological position, the same critical principles, or the same power of grasping and illustrating a subject. Winer's Biblisches Realwörterbuch, which is in a certain sense the work of one man, far exceeds in unity of plan and treatment Dr. Smith's Dictionary. But such a work is not to be expected in England, nor is it perhaps to be desired. In the present state of theological science, there are some advantages attending this variety of authorship. It is a gain to the Biblical student to have placed before him discussions of leading questions in criticism and interpretation by scholars of varying prepossessions and mental habits. Few men are altogether exempt from a rationalising tendency, and as few are free from a trace of bigotry and narrowness. But where there are many factors, the errors may correct each other. The undue bias of one writer may be counterbalanced by the opposite extravagance of another. While the contributors to this Dictionary are evangelical in their tone and feeling, they differ, of course, in individual traits and opinions. They belong, also, to various ecclesiastical connections. Dr. Smith is himself a dissenter; most of his coadjutors are members of the Church of England. A number of American names, such as Pres. Felton, Profs. Conant, Hackett and Stowe, are inserted in the list of writers at the beginning of the first volume. infer that the services of those gentlemen were not procured in season for them to contribute to the first volume, but that their pens will enrich the second volume. In a few instances Dr. Smith has been unfortunate in the selection of his collaborators. Thus for example the article on the Topography of Jerusalem is written by Mr. James Fergusson.

We

Mr. Fergusson is a man of ability, whose earlier life was spent in the shop

and counting-house. Like most men, who, without the advantage of a liberal education, take up science late in life, he is rash in forming his opinions and obstinate in asserting them. He has adopted the notion, based on certain architectural considerations, that the church erected by Constantine on the site of the Holy Sepulchre, was the present grand mosque es-Sukhrah in the middle of the Haram area. An erroneous view on so fundamental a point gives a wrong direction to the treatment of the entire subject. So important an article ought never to have been entrusted to the hands of one who had adopted a fanciful theory.

This Dictionary covers more ground than the work of Winer before mentioned. It contains many articles which belong properly to the department of Biblical Introduction. Thus we have articles on the Biblical Canon and on the several books of the Old and New Testament. Some of these are extremely well written. We have been particularly interested in the arti cles on the Canon and on Isaiah, which are able, full, and candid. That on Job is less satisfactory; the writer makes a hesitating attempt to prove great antiquity of the book, and involves the subject in a cloud of dust, without reaching any positive result. The shorter articles on the names of obscure persons and similar topics, often neglected in works of this sort, are very complete.

the

We have observed in a few of the articles a disposition to turn mere hypothesis into history, and to assume as settled what is yet matter of conjecture. This is a fault which Englishmen have been very ready to charge upon the Germans, while they have claimed for themselves a keen practical sense which admits nothing without adequate proof. For example, in the sketch of Hezekiah's life, it is assumed as matter of history, proved and admitted, that Sennacherib came to the Assyrian throne in 702 B.C. Now this fact, if it be such, involves a change in the Biblical chronology; and the statement of 2 Kings 18: 13, that Sennacherib came against Hezekiah in the fourteenth year of the reign of that king is proved incorrect; since the reign of Hezekiah could not have begun later than 724, and is generally placed somewhat earlier. Now we do not object to this assertion on doctrinal grounds. If the date in the passage above named is shown to be false, there should be no hesitation in admitting the result; that it will be hereafter proved and generally admitted, is possible. But in the pres ent stage of the investigation, it cannot be regarded as a settled thing. It is as yet a plausible hypothesis, belonging to the field of scientific inquiry, but not entitled to a place in a book of results. For it is an hypo1 thesis which requires the adjustment of three distinct sources of evidence: Berosus, i. e. Alex. Polyhistor as preserved by Eusebius, the Canon of Ptolemy, and the Assyrian inscriptions. If the adjustment were entirely simple and natural, (which it is not), there is still a cloud of uncertainty hanging over one of the factors. The Assyrian inscriptions cannot as yet be regarded as a perfectly clear and unequivocal source of evidence. It is only a few years since they were discovered, and the problem of deciphering them is not fully worked out. Much has been done, and the results al ready achieved reflect credit on the scholars who have wrought them. But a perfect solution is very difficult, and not to be affected in one day or by The nature of the case demands that we should have something more than the authority of two or three able, ingenious but perhaps rather sanguine men.

one man.

The instance above named is not the only example of a disposition to fol low implicitly the statements of Mr. Rawlinson in his extremely learned but somewhat premature work on Herodotus. Thus we find it asserted that

Sennacherib made two expeditions into Palestine, and that Zishakah was not King of Egypt until 690 B.C. The first of these propositions rests on the supposed fact that only one expedition, and that successful, is mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions. If it is certain that these are thoroughly and accurately read, and are moreover perfectly reliable and truthful, the question is settled, and we must hold to a second expedition ending in the terrible judgment that overtook Sennacherib's army as narrated in the Bible. But this view of the matter, we are compelled to think, was not in the mind of the Biblical writer. If one reads with care the narrative in the book of Kings, or in the parallel passage of Isaiah, he will find it difficult to believe that the compiler had in his mind and intended to convey to his readers the notion of two distinct expeditions. We say therefore in this case, also, that the proposition is not improbable, and may in future be proved true; but its assertion in a Biblical Dictionary, is at the least pre

mature.

But time and space will not allow us to pursue these observations further Though the book is doubtless open to criticism, we believe it to be the best work of the kind in the English language. It testifies to the increased attention bestowed on Biblical science in England in the last twenty-five years. It is also a hopeful sign of what England may do hereafter. We believe that more than any other nation she is capable of managing free criticism with a firm hand, and of conducting theological investigation in a liberal yet conservative spirit.

Lange's Theologisch-Homiletisches Bibelwerk. Die Corintherbriefe von Dr. CHR. FR. KLING. Bielefeld, 1861, royal 8vo, double columns, pp. 407. This volume forms the seventh part of the New Testament division of Lange's Bible-work, to which we have frequently referred in terms of commendation. It is somewhat out of proportion, as to length, with the other volumes; but it bears the marks of elaborate preparation, and is well adapted to homiletic use. It is written in the same method, and in a like evangelical spirit, with the preceding parts of the work. The remainder of Paul's Epistles, and the Revelation will complete the New Testament. The next issue will be Superintendent Moll's Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews.

He

Die Lehre von der Kenosis, dargestellt von Dr. PH. J. BODEMEYER. Götting. 1860, pp. 234. The question whether the Son of God, in assuming human nature, laid aside his divine nature, emptied himself of divinity, is the subject of this volume. It is, as is well known, one of the topics most ardently debated in the recent theological literature of Germany. The author reviews the theories of Thomasius, Martensen, Dorner, Liebner, Gass and Rothe, with abundant learning and acuteness. begins with a speculative construction of the Trinity; and asserts that there is a double life in God; on the one hand, the internal, Trinitarian life; on the other, the life shown in creation, in the self-manifestation of deity. Deity must divest itself of some of its attributes and modes of working when it is revealed or manifested. But this humiliation, or emptying (Kenosis), is not found in the incarnation alone; it is also seen in all the works and ways of God in respect to creation. Some of the author's views are open to grave difficulties; as when he says, the Christ as man was not an individual, but only had the form of one,-which seems to approximate to docetism. His criticism of Martensen's doubts about the divine omniscience, and of Julius Müller's theory of a timeless fall of man, are acute. Many of his speculations are bold; and he often seems to feel assured upon matters where hesitation would be more be

fitting. He says scarcely a word of the famous dispute between Tübingen and Giessen, on the question of Kenosis or Krypsis. He makes the humi liation of Christ to consist (p. 210), not in his laying aside the divine attributes (which would have been of no avail), but in his giving up, in his human state, the blessedness he had with the Father, and taking upon himself the wrath of God.

Principles of Natural Theology. By ROBERT ANCHOR THOMPSON, M.A. London. 16mo, pp. 120. The author of this compact little treatise is the successful competitor for the Burnett Prize a few years since. The object of the present essay is to state the intellectual principles of the theistic arguments. It is more systematic in its method and aim than the preceding essay, and a more vigorous work.

We often hear the word demonstration applied to arguments for the divine existence, but usually with regret. All that any wise man will undertake to show is, that our knowledge of God may be put upon the same basis with our other accepted knowledge. We have as good reason to cherish and act upon a belief in the existence of a personal and infinitely wise and holy God, as to put confidence in the existence of finite minds and a material universe. The three knowledges rest upon the same principles, have the same character, may be verified by the same method. Many works have been published upon the evidences of Theism, but few attempt the task which most of all needs to be done, namely, to discuss the subject in its principles. This Mr. Thompson has attempted in his thoughtful essay. We have read it with interest, and with entire sympathy with its purpose.

In the first chapter Mr. T. states with clearness and precision the argument from final causes. The cosmical arrangements, the unities of plan, the adjustments to ends, manifested in the universe, are undeniable. The ques tion is, How shall this order be interpreted? We are limited to one of three hypotheses. Either the matter of the world has arranged itself, or it has been arranged by some superior power, either intelligent or unintelligent. Matter, as known, is not one being, but a system of diverse substances, existing under certain conditions. The first hypothesis is unsatis factory. We need some arranging power superior to the world. Can this power be known to be intelligent? Every thing at least looks as if it were. If the arranging power be merely mechanical, it is a power which affords all the accepted signs of intelligence, and no others. To speak of it as unintel ligent is to deny properties it does manifest, if not to attribute to it those it does not exhibit; as though a chemist were to say: This gas has all the properties of oxygen and no others, but we will call it hydrogen. It is also to falsify the spontaneous processes of the mind, as exhibited in the attainment and verification of our knowledge of all intelligent beings besides ourselves. The adjustments of a watch argue a contriver. But, says the objector, you have had experience of watch-making. Yes, is the reply, but not till I had learnt that watch-makers have minds like my own. Whence came this prior knowledge? Through manifestations of intelligence at least similar in kind to those seen in the watch. These signs are evidence of intelligence, because the mind carries the knowledge of itself which it gains in consciousness into the external world, and by this light of reason interprets what it sees. If it gives a valid interpretation to the signs which reveal finite minds, it may, on the same principles, recognise intelligent power in nature.

This argument reaches only to an intelligent power, the cause of the order and adaptations of the world. We infer a wise architect. Is this mind the Creator of all things? In the third chapter an inquiry is made into "the extent of possible knowledge on the doctrine of creation." The main posi