pride in being able to outrun the fleetest, just as Achilles did? Who does not revel in Scott's descriptions of the massive strength of Richard the Lion Hearted, whether he batters down the postern of Torquilstone, or cleaves the steel mace-handle in Saladin's tent?

And, aside from any such instinctive pleasure as this, physical strength is the basis of intellectual strength. Of two men of the same mental calibre and cultivation, he also who can hold a fifty-six at arm's length, who can run a mile at the top of his speed without getting out of breath, who can row a boat fifty miles in eight hours, can write more and better prose or poetry than his slender soft-meated compeer, to whom the grasshopper is a burden-who would almost be consumed by the breath of a "great Burlybumbo" of the Anakim, from the mountains of East Tennessee, as one would blow away a 66 daddy-long-legs."

We would by no means have every literary man worship Hercules Fisticuff, and make a prize-fighter of himself. But we wish our band of American authors weighed more, on an average, than they do, and every man could shoulder his barrel of flour if he has one-and march off, expeditus.

LITERATURE.

AMERICAN-Wolfert's Roost, by WASHINGTON IRVING, is a collection of short tales and sketches, published uniformly with the complete edition of his works. Wolfert's Roost was the old name of the author's residence, on the banks of the Hudson; and the first portion of the book consists of chronicles relating to the old house and its neighborhood. The gems of the book are the powerful narrative of The Grand Prior of Minorca, and the delightful dreamy descriptions in "The Adelantado of the Seven Cities," and in the chronicles of the Roost. We transcribe a single passage from the history of the wars of the sachem of Sing Sing. The feud of this sachem, with a certain wizard chief of the neighborhood, having been related, its result is thus told :

"Suffice it is to say that the wizard chieftain was at length victorious, though his victory is attributed, in Indian tradition, to a great medicine, or charm, by which he laid the sachem of Sing Sing, and his warriors asleep among the rocks and recesses of the

valley, where they remain asleep to the present day, with their bows and war-clubs beside them. This was the origin of that potent and drowsy spell which still prevails over the valley of the Pocantico, and which has gained it the well-merited appellation of Sleepy Hollow. Often, in secluded and quiet parts of that valley, where the stream is overhung by dark woods and rocks, the ploughman, on some calm and sunny day, as he shouts to his oxen, is surprised at hearing faint shouts from the hill-sides in reply; being, it is said, the spell-bound warriors, who half start from their rocky couches and grasp their weapons, but sink to sleep again."

In this musical and delicious description is the subject for a truly American picture, as striking as Kaulbach's "Hunnenschlacht", and abundantly more beautiful. Wolfert's Roost well maintains its author's fame. It is marked by the delicate purity of style, the quiet humor, the beautiful imagination, the lucid narrative, and the spirited description, which have so long charmed Mr. IRVING'S multitudinous readers. is delightful, among the crowd of "popular" works the undistinguishable throng of books with little character and less merit, which daily appear, to recognize this work of a master, and of a master faithful to his fame and to the proper literary integrity of the true author.

It

-The Coquette: or the History of Eliza Wharton, originally written by Mrs HANNAH FOSTER; and now edited with. a preface, by Mrs. JANE E. LOCKE, is quite interesting as a specimen of a style of composition now antiquated, but which, at its first appearance, attracted, perhaps, almost as much attention as that of the Waverley Novels. The story is founded upon actual facts, well known in Connecticut and Massachusetts at the time of their occurrence, and is full of melancholy interest. Eliza Wharton, a young lady of uncommon beauty of person and intellectual capacity and attractiveness, is sought in marriage by a young clergyman; but his sober wooing is disturbed and frustrated by the brilliant conversation of Major Sandford, an officer, who ultimately ruins his victim, and at the same time destroys the peace of his own life. It is told in a series of letters passing among the characters of the book, after the manner of Richardson; and, although written in the precise and formal style of New England, three-quarters of a century ago, the story is developed with considerable skill.

revelations attendant upon its struggles and punishments have laid open a scene of irresponsible despotism, secret swindling, and savage intolerance, which must efficiently destroy the further progress of an organization so odious to all freemen, and so repugnant to all the truths and traditions of our country.

--Professor BARNARD'S Report on a Proposition to modify the Plan of Instruction in the University of Alabama, is a well compacted argument, in favor of the established custom of founding the collegiate course of study upon thorough instruction in Greek, Latin and Mathematics; and in favor of making at least the material portion of the course compulsory upon all students. It must be confessed that neither the optional departments, nor the so-called "Scientific departments" hitherto attempted to be annexed to our colleges, have at all answered the expectations of their projectors; yet it cannot be denied that there is a decided and increasing public demand for some institutional instruction, preparatory to scientific or scientific-mechanical life, of a grade corresponding with the "professional" educations now attainable. We anticipate still further modifications of existing collegiate institutions, or the alternative establishment of rival schools of Art and Mechanics; but meanwhile, publications like the present, show that the conservative party will keep as tight a rein as possible upon rampant reformers. This is as it should be; the educational centres of the country are the worst possible fields for any but the most carefully considered and safest experiments.

-Professor YOUMANS' Chemical Atlas is not only a good class-book for schools, but a valuable and pleasant book for all untechnical people to own and to read. It gives very clear explanations of the principal chemical facts, and renders them still clearer, by the tangible and unmistakeable method of ocular demonstration. Professor YOUMANS' large Chemical Charts are well known, and are most useful adjuncts to the usual courses of instruction. Reduced copies of them are given in this work. They illustrate the atomic theory of the chemical combinations of metals and metalloids by the varied juxtaposition of squares colored in such a way as to suggest a characteristic of each element, and of such sizes as to show at a glance the proportions of combination.

-Dr. JOHN H. GRISCOM's Anniversary Discourse before the New York Academy of Medicine, discusses the relations between the people and the science of medicine. Without any inappropriate attempts at profundity or display of technics and technical wisdom, Dr. Griscom has published some quite startling facts as to the yearly expenditure by the profession and the public for curing the sick poor, and some valuable suggestions on public hygiene and prophylactics.

REPUBLICATIONS.-We have received the last two numbers of The Chemistry of Common Life, by JAMES F. W. JOHNSTON. It is one of the clearest and most interestingly written treatises upon the science of every-day matters, that we have ever seen. The ordinary processes of life and the means of supporting life are very entertainingly explained, while with the main discussion very many valuable and curious facts are collaterally given. This present number discusses the subjects of respiration and digestion, gives an analysis of the general structure of the body, and explains the great circulations of inorganic matter in and upon the earth.

-Examination of the Principles of Biblical Interpretation of Ernesti, Ammon, Stuart, and other philologists. By ALEXANDER CARSON, LL.D. This work is little more than a disparaging review of the philological rules of the authors named on the title-page. The jet of the discussions is to expose the illogical and unphilosophical character of the principles or pretended principles of Ernesti, of his commentator Ammon, and more exceptionally of Stuart, Gill, and other commentators on the Bible; in which Dr. Carson certainly succeeds. But so far as he has attempted any positive operations he has not accomplished any very great results. He earnestly urges the importance of spiritual knowledge, as an indispensable qualification for hermeneutical investigation, yet he cannot, any more than the men whose canons he attacks, avoid erecting rules for those investigations which are solely and simply the results of human philosophy. Dr. Carson, like many other theologians and religious writers, dead and living, has displayed in his writings a dietatorial arrogance altogether unlike his personal deportment; and no insignificant infusion of this quality appears upon the pages of the present work. He is profuse

in his application of hard names and hard epithets; and in particular he seems to consider an argument irrefutably clinched when he has called his adversary a neologist. This word, indeed, is with him a sort of universal synonym for everything disingenuous and unreliable in argument, and wrong in faith and practice. He inquires, about that careful thinker, Professor Stuart, "Did ever the extravagance of fanaticism utter anything more frenzied than this?” And he customarily serves out to his opponents similar imputations. The time for such insults is gone. It is unfortunate that the folly of Scioppins and Salmasius must be repeated by modern divines, in the midst of the Christian light of this century. It will damage no man's argument to allow, tacitly at least, that his adversaries are honest, and to confine himself to the lucid exposition of their errors. No other mode of discussion will at this day accomplish any permanent good.-A Treatise on the Figures of Speech, and another on the Right and Duty of all men to read the Scriptures, are added. Of this last not much need be said; as it is calculated for an audience of Irish Protestants; and has little appropriateness on this side the Atlantic. Of the Treatise on the Figures of Speech, pcrtions are valuable. The general views of the laws of language, so far as developed, are sound. Many of the distinctions and definitions are valuable; but the treatise, as a whole, is wanting in order, lucidity and distinctness, and evidently demanded careful and thorough revision to make it properly ready for publication.

TRANSLATIONS.--General History of the Christian Religion and Church. From the German of Dr. AUGUSTUS NEANDER. Translated from the Last Edition. By JOSEPH TORREY, Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy in the University of Vermont. In five volumes. Volume Fifth. Published from the Posthumous Papers by K. F. Th. Schneider. Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1854.

We welcome from the hands of an eminent American scholar this translation of the closing volume of Neander's noble history of Christianity and the Church. Prof. Torrey's undertaking has been justified by its success as well as by its motive, and the reception of this author by American readers and students, is proof of a decided affinity between the spirit of the

History and the spirit of our rising theology. Church history has been too often a dismal task both to writer and reader, a fruitless chase after truth through labyrinths of dogmatic disputation, or a suffocating excavation among catacombs of antiquarian formalism. Our age, in its passage from the dynasty of dogma and of form to the sphere of practical life, has asked to have the past interpreted in this freer spirit, and the indefatgiable student of Berlin, among the dusty tomes of his library, felt himself refreshed by the living sympathy of a great host of readers, as he received witness upon witness to convince bim that our century, instead of rejecting Christianity, asks rather to see it in its own home, free from the masks that have been fastened to its features. The preface to the first volume indicates the author's point of view, where he says that the "chief aim of his life, from an early period, was to represent the history of the Church of Christ as a speaking proof of the divine power of Christianity, as a school of Christian experience, and a voice sounding through all ages, of edification and warning for all who are willing to listen."

Written in this temper, it is obvious that the history of the Church must be the history of humanity itself, in the most central and enduring of its developments under the Providence of God. The Christian Religion embodied in itself the essence of the Oriental Spirit under divine illumination, and in its westward march subdued to its power all the empires of the West, even now busying itself with planting its cross upon the Pacific shores, and preparing to complete the circle of its dominion by invading Asia on her eastern coast. All arts, sciences, letters and forms of civilization, have more or less been stamped by its mark, so that the record of the Church, when generously interpreted, is the record of human culture in its broadest and highest attainments. Privileged indeed, is the scholar who can give his life to the subject in this liberal spirit, and write the history of divine faith in the temper of a large humanity. We cannot, by any means say that Neander has wholly succeeded in his task, although he has never been false to the purpose with which he started. We can justly give him the credit of steering clear of the odium theologicum that has been the bitterness and the blindness of so many of his predecessors. To him Christi

anity always presents itself as the life of faith and love, imparted to the soul through Christ and the spirit; and when interpreted by him thus, every age presents noble specimens of this family type. But he is very much lacking in colloquial grace of style and in artistic grouping of subjects. He is not very interesting to readers who wait to be charmed down the current of flowery periods along banks of picturesque scenery. He who reads for solid instruction will find himself rewarded abundantly, and may be sure of having the pith of every controversy and the turning point of every revolution distinctly laid before him. In this defect and in this excellence, Neander but follows the peculiar gerius of his nation, for we are not aware of any profound German scholar who brings to this heavy work the peculiar grace so frequent with the French and not rare with English scholars. If, however, he could have studied style in the school of Herder, or caught something of literary elegance from Karl Hase, his work might have charmed the general reader as much as it now rewards the attention of the professional student. The volume now before us equals in interest any of its predecessors, excepting, perhaps, the second volume which treats of men and opinions in that age of the Milne Fathers, which gave law for ages to Christendom. It goes over more than a century, from the height of the papal prerogative under Boniface VIII., A. D. 1300, to the Council of Constance, 1414; and the execution of John Huss and Jerome of Prague, who by their martyrdom more than their writings, sowed the seed of the Protestant Reformation which rose up to honor by its birth the next centennial of their death. To us, as mainly descendants of the English race, the chapter on the life and thought of Wicklif are most interesting; and fragmentary and impoverished as it is, it gives enough of the author's somewhat original view of this stout precursor of Luther to make us regret that the sketch could not be completed. The philosophical system of Wicklif is very inadequately described, although enough is said to prove that he had far more in his mind than the simple

reproduction of the letter of Scripture as an antidote to the reigning priestcraft. The volume ends somewhat abruptly with the discussion of the movements among that interesting and elevated class of mystics, the "Friends of God" in the 14th century. There was something quite expressive in the fact that Neander's pen was stopped by the hand of death in this field of his labors, for his position towards our age is very much like that of these "Friends of God" towards their own age. Like them he embodies the Christian temper and spiritual experience, that are to win men to a new and better comprehension of religion, more than he represents the philosophic clearness and persuasive eloquence that can satisfy the intellectual demands and fascinate the restless attention of this keen, defiant and excitable generation. We end our notice of these noble volumes, by commending to the faithful translator's notice, the learned and attractive Biographical work of Bohringer, which aims to teach Church history through the lives of the heroes of Christian thought and action, as a fit task for his scholarly and accomplished pen, and as quite likely to reward his labor.

ENGLISH.-Cain, by CHARLES BONER, is no improvement on BYRON's Cain; and, we apprehend, hardly superior to GESNER'S Death of Abel. It is a poem in blank verse, which so works up the slender story in Genesis, as to make it appear that Cain slew his brother by accident, merely by pushing him over; that his wandering was a rest, appointed to him by God; and that Adam and Eve had no other children than these two. This is apparently as quiet a way of representing the story as could well be imagined; nor is the unimpassioned character of the plot relieved by any splendor of diction or power of thought. Neither the narrative, the descriptions, nor the dialogue, ever rise above a decorous tameness, even in the fiercest struggle after a desperate insanity of expression, where Cain is threatening Abel with punishment for persisting in the attempt to engage his gloomy brother in a joint sacrifice.