HYMN FOR THE CHILDREN OF A SUNDAY SCHOOL. Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not.'-Mark x. 14. WHEN Superstition hid the light Thy love had thrown on earth and sky, O God! was childhood's destiny. Abandon'd in the desert wild, Or at the bloody altar slain, From beasts, and gods more fierce than they. The Gospel's holy light reveal'd How dear to Heav'n its humblest child: By Jesus sav'd, e'en children now And save our souls from sin and shame. And hymn Thy goodness evermore. J. B. CRITICAL NOTICES. On the History, Habits, and Instincts of Animals, by the Rev. W. Kirby, M.A., 2 vols. 8vo.; being the seventh of the Bridgewater Treatises.-London, W. Pickering. Ir previous numbers of the Bridgewater Series had left a doubt of the inutility of attempting to procure good books by large donations of money, without calling in the principle of competition, this work would suffice to satisfy the most incredulous. Swoln and affected in style, mystical in spirit, miscellaneous in matter, it proves nothing satisfactorily, but the incompetency of the author, and of those who devolved on him a work which ought to have been a national honour. We shall not trouble our readers with a detailed exposure of the writer's misdemeanours; one passage or two will serve as a specimen, both of the matter and the manner. When they (the animals) were brought into existence, the word was-" Let the waters bring forth"-"Let the earth bring forth❞— from which it should seem that God did not act immediately in their creation, except by his agency on those powers that he had established as rulers in nature, and by which he ordinarily taketh hold, as it were, of the material universe. But when a being, combining the spiritual with the natural world, is to be created, all the persons of the Godhead unite immediately in the work, and without the intervention of any other agent. Let us make man." He was therefore neither sea-born nor earth-born, as some ancient nations claimed to be, but born of God: though, as Christ moistened clay when he was about to exercise his creative power, in the reforming of an eye; so was the humid earth used in the creation of the body of man by his Maker; and when that wonderful machine, with its complex apparatus of organs, both external and internal, was finished; when a throne and presencechamber were prepared for the intellectual and spiritual and governing part of his nature, and that wonder-working pulp the brain, with its silver spinal chord and infinitely divaricated threads, already fitted for the mastery of every motive organ, was in a state to transmit without obstruction each flux and reflux of that subtile fluid, intermediate, as it were, between matter and spirit, which so instantaneously conveys and causes the execution of the commands of the will by every external bodily organ; when the heart was ready to beat, the lungs to play, the blood to circulate, and every other system to start for the fulfilment of the prescribed errand—“ Then the Lord God breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives, and man became a living soul."' The merit of originality cannot however be wholly denied to Mr. Kirby, for surely none but a mind conscious of extraordinary faculties could have ventured on so transcendental a speculation as that which is involved in his grave discussion on the exact time and manner when and how the several genera of bugs, fleas and lice were created. Can we believe that man, in his pristine glory and beauty and dignity, could be the receptacle and the prey of these unclean and disgusting creatures? This is surely altogether incredible—I had almost said impossible. And we must either believe with Le Clerc and Bonnet, that all these worms now infesting our intestines existed in Adam before his fall, only under the form of eggs, which did not hatch till after that sad event; or that these eggs were dispersed in the air, in the water, and in various aliments, and so were ready to hatch when they met with their destined habitation; or that they were created subsequently to the fall of Adam, not immediately, or all at once, but when occasions called for such expressions of the Divine displeasure.' One sentence by way of a special exhibition of the author's accuracy of expression ;-let it be the first in his book, that we may not be thought to have gone in search of faults: The works of God, and the word of God, may be called two doors which open into the temple of truth; and as both proceed (doors are made, and do not proceed) from the same almighty and omniscient Author, they cannot, if rightly interpreted, (a wooden interpretation it would be!) contradict, (doors contradict'!) but must mutually lilustrate and coufirm, (doors darken, not illustrate'-admit, not 'confirm') though each in different sort and manner the same truths.' The book furnishes us with the means of proposing to our readers a puzzle to determine, that is, the way in which a dissertation on the Mosaical tabernacle and the Solomonian temple,' as well as on the 'mysterious subject of the Cherubim,' could be appropriately introduced into a treatise On the History, Habits, and Instincts of Animals.' But we have already said more than enough on this learned farrago. The Life of Milton, being the first volume of his Poetical Works, edited by Sir Egerton Brydges, Bart.-London, Macrone. THE Life is a running commentary on Milton, his life, his writings, his biographers; in which, with much that is acute and tasteful, there are endless repetitions and the utmost complexity. Topics come, are discussed, and dismissed only to come again. Observations of the same import, sometimes almost identical in expression, are repeated with the grave simplicity of a mind utterly unconscious of its parrot-like propensities. But the capital defect of the work is the utter want of sympathy in the writer with some essentials in Milton's character. A blind man discoursing on colours would not present a greater practical blunder, than Sir Egerton Brydges, Bart., attempting to explain the conduct of Cromwell's secretary. It is indeed surprising to us that a rank Tory should have undertaken the eulogy of a stern Republican, and that a lover of ecclesiastical grandeur and opulence should think he could find admission into the sanctities of a Puritan's soul. As it is, however, there is no difficulty in comprehending that Milton's present biographer should have preferred that he had written romances of chivalry, instead of his glorious and everlasting pieces on church and state reform. We shall give a specimen or two of the writer's aptitude to appreciate the character of one who lost his sight overplied in liberty's defence.' The cause of liberty, pursued from the purest motives, if it could be separated from the constant participation of the great body, who are actuated by a love of licentiousness and an envious desire to overturn and plunder the great and the rich, would become such a mind as Milton's; but the large mass of the active movers of that celebrated contest (against Charles I.) was of a temper and passion utterly unfitted to the bard's holy spirit. He was blinded by his zeal in a cause in which his heart and his convictions were embarked, and he reaped the fruit of the food he sought in bitterness and sorrow: he found thorns, and brambles, and weeds without end, wherever he applied his sickle.' To make a man of business, requires nothing but petty and watchful observation, cold reserve and selfish craft; to catch the moment when caution in others is asleep; to raise hopes, yet promise nothing; to seem to give full information, yet to be so vague, that every thing is open to escape.' As the type of this last description, the conservative Baronet must surely have taken one who essayed, by mystifying all parties, to remain the Prime Minister in a monarchy, than him who, to his own surprise became, and contrary to his own will remained, an honoured secretary of an honoured Commonwealth. Whatever novelty might have been expected from the pen of Sir E. Brydges, we suppose no one expected the discovery that Milton was bloodthirsty; yet the biographer writes, in speaking of the noble politician's piece on 'The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates'-'The very title of this treatise is surely in the highest degree objectionable, and does not in these days require any refutation.' (The refutation of the title of a treatise! Most discriminating critic!) To say the truth, this is a part of Milton's character which puzzles me-and no other' (except, he should have added, 'his 'puritanism.') 'This blood-thirstiness does not agree with his sanctity, and other mental and moral qualities. In the poet, however, posterity has forgotten the regicide.' Other gems of ajnot unlike character might be collected; for example, - Puritanism had all its (religion's) acidity and rigidness, and all its freezing bareness.' What can a man know of religion who ascribes to it such qualities? 'Milton's imagination was not at all suited to the cold and dry hypocrisy of a Puritan.' How then became he a Puritan ; or, if he became one, is a Puritan necessarily a cold, dry hypocrite? We conclude by extracting a comment on the following question of Warton's When the people turn legislators, what place is safe from the tumults of innovation and the insults of disobedience? True,' says Brydges, if uncontrolled by King and Lords, as they have lately attempted to be.' L'Auberge d'Orgon, ou Napoléon en 1814. Editée par L. Guillemin. Uncle Oliver's Travels; Persia, vol. 1. Historical Pictures- THIS is the day of children's intellectual harvest. Could we wish to be young again, it would be to devour the nice books with which the press teems. There are, of course, exceptions-and we have met with very few books, from the English press, on religious topics, suited to interest and instruct the young-but, generally, the juvenile library abounds in works as happily executed as they were benevolently designed. One, and a chief reason is, that most of them are written by females, who, from the circumstance of their's being mainly a domestic education, can enter in the feelings of children, appreciate their likings, catch the style in which they are used to think and to talk, and in which, therefore, with a little elevation, they ought to be addressed. A better illustration of this is not to be found than in the second of the above enumerated publications. The book is as delightful as the birds of which it treats. Each bird tells his own tale in a manner suited to his own character, and we cannot sufficiently admire the skill of the writer in seizing and presenting the exact tone correspondent to the habits and character of each bird in turn. It has been said by those of old time, that the Gods, if they used human language, would have spoken as Homer spoke, and that the Muses, under a similar supposition, would have gone to school to Plato. We are not sure that Miss Emily Taylor has not written her book in a well-stocked aviary, or what would be far better-lived many a summer's day in groves, and forests, and woods, and received a special mission from the bird tribe to tell the tale of their history to the young. The pictures in the book are enough to make its fortune. 'L'Auberge d'Orgon' is a tale of the Revolution, exhibiting the evils of war in private life. The story, founded on fact, is well conceived and well written. It is admirably fitted, by the stirring interest of its narrative, to win the scholar onward in the study of the French language, and to form his taste by the simplicity and purity of its style. It is a work which no one will begin without reading it through at the first sitting, provided the language offer no impediment. We do not know that we shall not give a translation of the story, for the benefit of those of our young readers, who unfortunately have not access to the original. Uncle Oliver' is as wise as he is good-a pleasant, chatty, child's friend, with a mind full of useful and entertaining knowledge. His description of Persia-its rivers, mountains, productions-strongly impress the reader that he has been an eye-witness of what he relates. Let other countries be treated of in a similar way. 'Historical Pictures-England'-is a book for the nursery, rather than the school-room. The style is clear and simple, and the facts are narrated in so easy and familiar a manner that they cannot fail of interesting the young reader, and making him familiar with many notable passages in the history of our country. The last work in our list is written for children of a more advanced age; with a degree of success scarcely equal to that which distinguishes the rest. There are so many persons and events introduced, that they confuse rather than inform, and render the history, as a whole, very difficult for a child to remember. We must not omit to mention, that for the last three works parents are indebted to the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. MISCELLANIES. MANCHESTER COLLEGE, YORK. ON Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the 23rd, 24th and 25th June, was held the annual examination of this College. The weather was very unfavourable, and, no doubt, prevented many who usually attend being present; a circumstance the more to be regretted, as the Students acquitted themselves uncommonly well, and received a highly creditable report of their conduct during the whole of the session. The College Prizes for general good conduct during the session were awarded to Mr. Marmaduke Frankland, Divinity Student in his third year; Mr. Thos. Hincks, ditto in his first year, and to Mr. J. H. M'Connel, Lay Student in his first year; the Classical Prizes offered by R. Philips, Esq., President, to Mr. Hincks and Mr. W. Mountford, Divinity Student in his second year; the Mathematical Prizes by a Friend to the College, to Mr. John Kendall, Divinity Student in his third year, Mr. Russell Lant Carpenter, Ditto in his second year, and to Mr. M'Connel. To Mr. Hincks also was given the Prize left unawarded last year. The |