In a recondite mathematical treatise, one does not expect to find many remarks on practical religion. We are therefore the more happy to read : "In the beginning, the creating Spirit embodied, in the material universe, those laws and forms of motion which were best adapted to the instruction and development of the created intellect. The relations of the physical world to man, as developed in space and time, as ordered in proximate simplicity and remote complication, in the immediate supply of bodily wants by the mechanic arts, and the infinite promise of spiritual enjoyment by the contemplation and study of unlimited change and variety of phenomena, are admirably adapted to stimulate and encourage the action and growth of the mind.""In these researches there is one lesson, which cannot escape the profound observer. Every portion of the material universe is pervaded by the same laws of mechanical action, which are incorporated into the very constitution of the human mind. The solution of the problem of this universal presence of such a spiritual element is obvious and necessary. THERE IS ONE GOD, AND SCIENCE IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIM." pp. 476, 477. Speaking of that constitution of the fixed forces which would result in perpetual motion, Prof. Peirce remarks, p. 31: "It may not, perhaps, be incompatible with the unbounded power of the Creator; but, if it had been introduced into nature, it would have proved destructive to human belief in the spiritual origin of force, and the necessity of a first cause superior to matter, and would have subjected the grand plans of Divine Benevolence to the will and caprice of man."

A theologian will be interested in Prof. Peirce's remark on the nature of Force, Power. On page 1 we read: "Motion is an essential element of all physical phenomena; and its introduction into the universe of matter was necessarily the preliminary act of creation. The earth must have remained forever without form and void;' and eternal darkness must have been upon the face of the deep, if the Spirit of God had not first moved upon the face of the waters.' Motion appears to be the simplest manifestation of power, and the idea of force seems to be primitively derived from the conscious effort which is required to produce motion. Force may, then, be regarded as having a spiritual origin, and when it is imparted to the physical world, motion is its usual form of mechanical exhibition. Matter is purely inert. It is susceptible of receiving and containing any amount of mechanical force which may be communicated to it, but cannot originate new force or, in any way, transform the force which it has received."

On page 28, we read: "It appears, at first sight, to be inconsistent with the assumed spiritual origin of force, that the principal forces of nature reside in centres of action, which are not thinking beings but particles of matter. The capacity of matter to receive force from mind in the form of motion, contain and exhibit it as motion, and communicate it to other matter, under fixed laws, is not, however, less difficult or more conceivable than the capacity to receive and contain it in a more refined and latent form, from which it may become manifest under equally fixed laws. It is only, indeed, when force is thus separated from mind, and placed beyond the con

trol of will, that it can be subject to precise laws, and admit of certain and reliable computation." See also pages 43 and 44.

On pages 2 and 3 we read: "Experiments have shown that the exertion which is required to move any body, is proportional to the product of the intensity of the effort into the space through which it is exerted. This product is, then, the proper measure of the whole amount of force which is necessary to the production of the motion; long-established custom has, however, limited the use of the word force to designate the intensity of the effort, and the whole amount of exertion may be denoted by the term power.”

We have thus far alluded to the incidental value of this great work. Its direct aim is to unfold the principles of Analytic Mechanics, and thereby to discipline the mind, accelerate the progress of the arts, and enlarge the domain of the physical sciences. Perhaps no English or American work, in the department of Natural Philosophy, is better fitted to this good end, than the present. The style of the treatise is as lucid as its theme will allow. It is admirably precise. The typography, also, is of rare excellence.

4. PROF. AGASSIZ'S NATURAL HISTORY.1

THE first two volumes of Professor Agassiz's work have been recently received; and we are happy to express our high gratification with its varied excellences. We have reached a period in which a system of Natural History is essential to a finished education. The professed design of the work before us is to develop the Natural History of our own country. The utility of the work, however, is by no means to be limited within so narrow bounds. To the common reader it presents the subject in an intelligible, attractive, and instructive form; but it comes to the naturalist with an intensity of interest which the common reader cannot appreciate. If the professed design of the work be carried out with the rare power shown in the volumes before us, the work will furnish a reliable standard of classification for the science to which it is devoted. Every thorough student feels the necessity of such a treatise; and the present beginning furnishes the bow of promise that the highest anticipations will be reasonably and seasonably answered. We receive it as a standard work, in which the classification will be complete, founded in nature, as observed in all her simple, complex, and varied forms. The example which these volumes give of minute examination, clear description, and full illustration, both in its text and its numerous drawings, of turtles and their several families, and their embryology in

1 Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of America, by Louis Agassiz. First Monograph in three parts. I. Essay on Classification. II. North American Testudinata. III. Embryology of the Turtle, with thirtyfour plates. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. London: Turner and Co. 1857. Vols. I. and II. pp. 643. quarto.

all the minutiae of detail, evinces not only that the work is in right hands, but that a vast amount of labor and observation is yet required to perfect it. To say or to anticipate that the work will be without a fault, is to acknowledge it super-human. To aspire at perfection is honorable, but more so to be humbled by failure to reach it.

The paper, typography, and lithography constitute no small share of the attractions of the work, and are every way creditable to the noble achievements of the American press. We regard these volumes as worthy of a position in every public and private library.

As we look forward with a restless anxiety to see the remaining portions of this work, we cannot repress our desire that an extensive and remunerative patronage, worthy of a life of true devotion to the science of nature, may be awarded to its author.

N.

5. ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN PULPIT.1

THESE Volumes contain the notices of the Presbyterian clergymen of the United States; as the first two volumes contained the notices of the Congregational clergymen. We commended the plan of the entire work, in the Bib. Sac. Vol. XIV., pp. 221–223. The present volumes illustrate the faithfulness of Dr. Sprague in adhering to that excellent plan. We have been interested in a large variety of the sketches in these volumes: in Benjamin Franklin's characteristic notice of Jedediah Andrews; in George Whitefield's account of William Tennent; in Samuel Finley's remarks on Samuel Davies; in William Wirt's celebrated description of James Waddel; in the notices of Dr. John Witherspoon, Dr. Charles Nisbet, Dr. James Richards, Philip Melancthon Whelpley, Dr. John Breckenridge. We have found an unexpected wealth of instruction in the biographies of some men whose names have heretofore been unknown to fame. The indefatigable industry of Dr. Sprague has laid his contemporaries under a great obligation to him. It will impose a still weightier debt of gratitude on the clergy of a coming age. His biographical sketches will attract the regard of future readers who, but for his literary enterprise, must have remained ignorant of many facts and many personages deserving a prolonged and grateful remembrance. We anticipate a rich fund of intelligence in his sketches of the Baptist and Methodist clergymen. We know too little of the selfdenials, the philanthrophy, the sterling worth of many pioneers in these denominations. Dr. Sprague will be an impartial chronicler of the virtues and exploits of multitudes who have hitherto been honored in their own denominations alone.

1 Annals of the American Pulpit; or Commemorative Notices of Distinguished American Clergyman of Various Denominations, from the early settlement of the country to the close of the year eighteen hundred and fifty-five. With Historical Introductions. By William B. Sprague, D. D. New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 530 Broadway. 1858. Vol. III. pp. 632. Vol. IV. pp. 829.

We hear frequent remarks on the inefficiency of clergymen. Which of the learned professions can furnish a list of names associated with such a variety of pleasing reminiscences, and of useful enterprises, as will be found, in the present series of Biographies, to be connected with the Christian ministry?

6.- PULPIT ELOQUENCE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.'

In the volume now under review are contained fifty-eight sermons, of which eighteen are contributed by American preachers; the remaining forty are, in about equal proportions, from German, French, English, Scotch, Irish, and Welsh clergymen. It cannot be ascribed to a groundless partiality for our own country, that the number of sermons from American divines is twice as large as the number from the divines of any other nation. If clearness of doctrinal statement, simple and energetic but not inelegant diction, directness of appeal, a thoroughly evangelical tone, logical force in distinction from rhetorical beauty, be excellent properties of a sermon, then must the sermons of our own divines be allowed a rank fully equal to those of any foreign land.

Hitherto, in the department of sacred eloquence, little comparatively has been said concerning any other than the French and the English or the American schools. He has been thought most to excel, who combined, in the highest degree, the different merits of these nations. The volume now before us will do much to acquaint American readers with the sermons of German divines. These sermons have peculiar merits as well as peculiar defects. They have not the oratorical finish and elevation of the French; they have not the evangelical simplicity, the argumentative power, of the English and American school. They have, however, fervor and unction, a full contact with the various sensibilities of our nature, the power of evolving from the text a copious fund of original and impressive thought, in a degree, which is not seen in the majority either of Anglo-Saxon or French preachers. On this account, that part of the present volume, which is devoted to the German pulpit, is of special value and deserves to be thoughtfully studied. We are gratified that it contains sermons from some Germans who are not generally known among us in the character of preachers; as, for example, Julius Müller, Harless, Stier, Nitzsch, Hoffmann.

Many of our readers will be interested in the specimens of pulpit eloquence from Welsh clergymen. One of the sermons in this department is by Rev. William Roberts, pastor of a Welsh congregation in Allen street, New York, and editor of a Welsh Quarterly Magazine, having the name,

1 Pulpit Eloquence of the Nineteenth Century; being Supplementary to the History and Repository of Pulpit Eloquence, Deceased Divines; and containing Discourses of Eminent Living Ministers in Europe and America, with Sketches Biographical and Descriptive, by Rev. Henry C. Fish. With an Introductory Essay, by Edwards A. Park, D. D., Abbot Professor in Andover Theological Seminary. New York: Published by M. W. Dodd, 506 Broadway. 1857.

in English, of The Essayist. Mr. Roberts's discourse, and also the sermons of his Welsh brethren, will be admired for their evangelical fervor and richness, compensating for any want of scholarly finish, which they may betray.

An important and interesting part of the work is the Biographical Sketches, by which each sermon is preceded. These give, for the most part, precisely the information which is needed, compressing much matter into a small space.

No judicious reader will be disappointed in not finding, in this volume, many discussions on certain doctrinal points, in respect to which evangelical divines are at variance. It is instructive to notice the proof given, here as elsewhere, of the little relative value which earnest preachers are in the habit of attaching to these points; how comparatively meagre a portion they constitute of evangelical discourse.

Mr. Fish's task, in the preparation of this volume, must have been one of great delicacy and difficulty. He deserves the thanks of the public for the eminent skill and fidelity with which it has been executed. The volume is a fine monument to his scholarship, as well as his ministerial zeal and energy.

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7.— GERMANY: ITS UNIVERSITIES, THEOLOGY, AND RELIGION.1 WE have, in this book, a truly valuable addition to our knowledge of Germany its literary institutions, its scholars and divines, its religious condition and prospects. The fact that its author is himself a German, and has received a regular German university education, combined with the fact, that he has now been, for a number of years, a resident in America, having been, since the year 1844, Professor in the Mercersburg Theological Seminary has given him access to better sources of information than any American could command; and, at the same time, has fitted him to perceive what information concerning Germany Americans most need.

The volume is divided into three Parts; the first treating of the German universities; the second of German theology and religion; and the third being made up of sketches of German divines. We have admired the skill with which such an amount of information, as is contained in each of these divisions, has been compressed into so small a compass.

We have been equally interested in the hopeful view which Dr. Schaff takes of the present state of the German universities and churches. According to his representations, the present class of "Burschen" is far more refined than their predecessors. Many of the rude and immoral practices, by

1 Germany; its Universities, Theology, and Religion; with Sketches of Neander, Tholuck, Olshausen, Hengstenberg, Twesten, Nitzsch, Müller, Ullmann, Rothe, Dorner, Lange, Ebrard, Wichern, and other distinguished German Divines of the Age. By Philip Schaff, D. D., Professor in the Theological Seminary, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman and Co. 1857.