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which their character was disgraced, have to a great extent disappeared. There is enough that is evil still left; but German students, especially in the larger cities, lose nothing, in any point of view, by a comparison with the students of Oxford and Cambridge. In a religious point of view, the change is not less marked. Rationalism has received a check from which it will not soon recover. Eichhorn, Wegscheider, Paulus, and Gesenius have no successors. The Straussian form of infidelity has done much, by a simple development of its nature, to secure its own overthrow. The present generation of German Professors, while in erudition not inferior, are, in a religious aspect, far superior, to their predecessors. Practical religion has revived. Every Christian will be refreshed by the account, given in this book, of the "Inner Mission;" an enterprise, which though in some respects more extensive, corresponds in general to our Home Missions. The strength of the German churches seems, at the present moment, to be, in some degree, wasted in internal dissensions. These quarrels between the Unionists, the Old and New Lutherans, and the Reformed, may end — it is to be presumed that they will-in a greatly improved state of things. Dr. Schaff states very strongly the points of contrast between the Lutheran and the Reformed churches, evidently much to the advantage of the latter.

The sketches of German scholars and divines, in the third Part, are vigorous and lively, and lend a strong confirmation to what we have already said of the hopeful effect of religion in the German States.

The perusal of this book may be recommended confidently to two classes of minds those who, in their ignorance, condemn indiscriminately everything of German origin; and those who, in the excess of their partiality, look contemptuously on everything which is not German. Specimens of both these classes may be found among us. No one can desire that the essential elements of the American character should be supplanted by the peculiar features of the German character. No one can doubt that the American mind may receive much benefit from contact with the Teutonic mind. At all events, the danger likely to arise from an inevitable intercourse with Germany, if such danger there be, will be the most effectually shunned by him who is the best acquainted with the form and dimensions of the German literature.

8.- LEWES's HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY.1

"THIS new edition may almost be considered a new work, so many are the additions, and so extensive are the alterations. Seven new names have been added to the list of philosophers, — Abelard, Algazzalli, Giordano Bruno, Hartley, Darwin, Cabanis, and Gall." The History evinces extensive research. The author professes not to have compiled his work from

The Biographical History of Philosophy, from its Origin in Greece to the Present Day. By George Henry Lewes. Library Edition, much enlarged and thoroughly revised. London: John W. Parker and Son, West Strand, 1857.

other modern histories, but to have studied, himself, the writings of the ancient philosophers, and, in almost all cases, to have made his extracts from them directly, or to have verified the extracts found in other historians, by fresh references to the originals. If this be the fact, it is one peculiarity of the present work, for it is as true as it is disreputable, that many modern histories, especially histories of Christian Doctrine, are compiled without a faithful study of the authoritative documents; and the extracts from ancient authors are borrowed at second hand, from comparatively recent writers, who have often misunderstood the extracts they have made, and the spirit of the original authorities.

We regret that Mr. Lewes has not improved the general spirit of his work, as much as he has improved its literary execution. We cannot allow to him the honor of having exhibited either a high philosophical talent, or a true philosophical temper. His style is animated and interesting; his mind is quick and energetic; his learning is rich and various; but his conclusions are sweeping, and, in our view, often inaccurate. His representations of the spirit of several systems of philosophy, of the Scotch systems in particular, are unfair and unjust. He fails to recognize certain facts in our mental consciousness, which are as indubitable as are any phenomena of the senses. He does not yield to some fundamental laws of the human mind. Hence, his science is one-sided, and unsatisfying. Its tendency is not only anti-Christian, but also opposed to true and healthy mental progress. His work ought to have been a calm and comprehensive survey of the course of the human mind; but it is a partisan defence of Compte's Positive Philosophy, and a brisk assault upon opposing systems. The school of Compte have few better representatives than Mr. Lewes in Great Britain; but the superficial and rather flippant method which Mr. Lewes has adopted of discussing grave problems, will not commend that school to the confidence of intelligent inquirers.

9.

LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY.1

WE are much gratified that the American publishers of Mr. Butler's two volumes of posthumous discourses have felt justified by the demand among

'Lectures on the History of Ancient Philosophy. By William Archer Butler, M. A., late Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Dublin. Edited from the Author's MSS. with Notes by William Hepworth Thompson, M. A., Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge. Two vols. 8vo. pp. 436 and 415. Cambridge: MacMillan and Co. 1855. Philadelphia: Parry and McMillan. 1857.

2 Sermons, Doctrinal and Practical. By the Rev. William Archer Butler, M. A., late Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Dublin. First Series. First American from the Third Cambridge edition. 8vo. Philadelphia : Parry and McMillan. 1856.

The same. Second Series. 8vo. Philadelphia: Parry and McMillan. 1857.

us for those volumes to republish also, in so worthy a style, these Lectures on Ancient Philosophy. The Sermons had at once, in England, an extensive circulation, and won exalted praise as the productions of a mind singularly brilliant and philosophic, learned and devout. We are confident that they will be read more and more as they become better known; for we are acquainted with no discourses in the English tongue - and we speak of past productions as well as present that are better adapted to satisfy those who have meditated much and deeply on their relations to God and to their fellow men, and the mysteries of the Christian faith. The spirit and manner of this preacher, with which we are scarcely less struck than with his thoughts, are what we believe can come only of the grace of God when superadded to the most exquisite human culture; and are the same as we observe in Mr. Hobart Seymour in his Evenings with the polished Jesuit in Rome, and in his Mornings with the rude partisan in Ireland- — a union of humility, courtesy, and power. Mr. Butler was born at Annerville, near Clonmel, Ireland. His father was a member of the church of England ; but, in accordance with the wishes of his mother, her son was baptized and educated in the Romish faith. When nine years old, he was removed from his home to the endowed school of Clonmel and the charge of a distinguished teacher. During his pupilage here, when oppressed with a sense of his sinfulness, he attended the confessional for relief; but the treatment of his sacred feelings by the unsympathizing confessor shocked him, and that day he began to doubt. He then examined the controversy for himself, and his powerful mind soon found and trusted in the truth. Two years after this event, he proceeded to Trinity College, Dublin, where he signalized himself in his literary studies, and obtained his scholarship in 1832. At about this period Dublin set the example, since so worthily followed by the University of Cambridge, of giving Ethics an honorable place on the list of subjects for the examinations for degrees. In November, 1834, the first examination for the Prize for proficiency in this study, instituted by Provost Lloyd, was held, and Mr. Butler's name now stands first on the list of successful aspirants. In 1837, through the strenuous efforts of the noble Provost, a Professorship of Moral Philosophy was wisely created to secure to the College the service of the splendid talents of Mr. Butler. It was in the discharge of the duties of this office that these Lectures on Philosophy were prepared; and it was in the midst of his Academic and Parochial labors he having been presented to two parishes by the Board of Trinity College that his death took place, in human judgment so premature, in 1848, when he had reached only the thirty-fourth year of his life. He made a profound impression in Ireland, both as a lecturer in the University and as a preacher, and was always heard with the greatest eagerness. Such was the opinion entertained of him in England, that Cambridge, in her admiration of genius, casting aside all jealousy of her rival, undertook the illustrious task of editing and publishing his works. The present volumes were prepared for the press by the Regius Professor of Greek; and it was done, he states, in the hope of stimulating the interest

in the study of Philosophy in England; and, he adds, that though Mr. Butler was personally unknown to him, his masterly Letters on Development1 had led him to rank Professor Butler among the most gifted spirits of his generation. The same letters received a very high commendation from the learned bishop Thirlwall; and of the Lectures embraced in these volumes, the late Sir William Hamilton said they had great scientific value, and that he was gratified to find so important a subject treated with so much learning and acuteness. In England, the First Series of the Sermons have already passed to the fourth edition, and the Second Series to the second. These volumes on Philosophy first appeared about two years since, and comprise Seven Introductory Lectures on the Science of Mind; a First Series, on Ancient and Modern Histories of Philosophy, on the Indian and the early Greek Philosophy, seven in number; a Second Series, nine lectures on Socrates and his followers, the minor sects and Plato; a Third Series, six lectures on Plato; a Fourth Series, three lectures on the successors of Plato; of a Fifth Series, left unfinished, three lectures on the Psychology of Aristotle. Of all these, the lectures on Plato and the Platonists, which make up nearly the whole of the second volume, the Editor considers as the most important and original, and states that they may be received as a perfectly independent contribution to our knowledge of the great Master of Grecian wisdom; and that of the Dialectic and Physics of Plato they are the only exposition, at once accurate and popular, which is known to him, being more accurate than the French and incomparably more popular than the German treatises on those departments of the Platonic Philosophy. He adds that the author's intimate familiarity with the metaphysical writings of the last century, and especially with the English and Scotch school of Psychologists, has enabled him to illustrate the subtle speculations of which he treats, in a manner calculated to render them more intelligible to the English mind than they can be made by writers trained solely in the technicalities of modern German schools. The author left copious collections in MS., of which he seems to have intended to make use to give greater completeness to his treatment of certain periods; but the lectures, as he bequeathed them to us, constitute a History of the Platonic Philosophy, in its rise, maturity, and decay. The Editor has done his work with judgment and learning. That slight diffusiveness which marks Mr. Butler's brilliant style, Professor Thompson has not attempted to retrench. The references to the original writers, which were mostly wanting in the MS., have been supplied, and notes illustrative, and in some cases corrective, have been subjoined. While Mr. Butler, in transfusing and developing the ideas of Ancient Philosophy, has by an effort of his genius admirably done what mere learning never could have accomplished, these notes of the Editor greatly add to the critical character of the work, and are interesting as enabling us to form some estimate of the schol

1 Letters on Romanism in Reply to Mr. Newman's Essay on Development. 8vo. Cambridge: MacMillan and Co.

arship of the successor of Porson at Cambridge. England has, as yet, done very little for Piato. But the University of Dublin, having previously given us a beautiful and valuable edition of the Phaedo by the hand of Mr. Stanford, has now, to use Mr. Thompson's words, furnished the first or one of the first examples, in recent times, of an upright and intelligent History of Platonism. Apart from these two works, British scholarship has produced scarcely anything, if we except the Republic, edited by Messrs. Davis and Vaughan, which can be compared with our edition of the Gorgias by President Woolsey, and of the Tenth Book of the Laws by Dr. Tayler Lewis, the excursus to which are an important contribution to metaphysical studies. We have therefore, with much pleasure, just read the announcement that a volume of Plato, containing the Gorgias, Phædrus, and Symposium, is soon to appear in the Bibliotheca Classica, prepared by the accomplished and generous Editor of these Lectures. While that work will be eagerly looked for by the classical scholar, the present volumes will be welcomed by all students and readers of Philosophy, and especially by those who would make or extend an acquaintance with the Philosophy of Plato - that Philosophy which seems to have carried the human mind in certain directions to its utmost limits, and whose defects, in its highest speculations, could be repaired only by the Revelation from God.

10. DR. SCHMITZ'S MANUAL OF ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY.1

THIS work is designed as a companion to the Manual of Ancient History,2 by the same author, which was reproduced in this country two years ago by the publishers of the present volume. This treatise is intended to furnish the student with that amount of Geographical and Ethnological information which he requires in reading the Greek and Latin authors and in studying the history of the nations of Antiquity. It is divided into Four Books, of which the First gives, in some thirty pages, closely printed, an outline of the gradual extension of Geographical knowledge among the nations of ancient times, serving as an introduction to the general subject. We are not acquainted with any other book in our language that contains the curious and valuable information brought together in this portion of the work. The Second Book treats of Europe; the Third, of Asia; the Fourth, of Africa; the whole presenting a complete survey of Ancient Geography in a very interesting manner, the author not confining himself, as was the custom in the old treatises on this subject, to a dry description of the political

1 A Manual of Ancient Geography. By Dr. Leonhard Schmitz, F. R. S. E., Rector of the High School of Edinburgh, Author of a Manual of Ancient History, etc. With a Map showing the Retreat of the 10,000 Greeks under Xenophon. 12mo. cl. pp. x and 428. Reprinted from the Edinburgh edition. Philadelphia: Blanchard and Lea. 1857.

2 A Manual of Ancient History, from the remotest times to the overthrow of the Western Empire, A. D. 476. With Copious Chronological Tables. 12mo. pp. viii and 466.

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