Lowe, and official Documents not before made public. By William Forsyth, M. A., &c. New York: Harpers. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co. pp. 635, 672.

This is the English, and of course, the unpopular side of the St. Helena question. It is very full, minute and elaborate, and quite indispensable to any one who would satisfy himself as to the merits of the case. That Sir Hudson Lowe had a most painful and difficult task to perform, no one we presume, will deny, and the book certainly makes some impression in his favor. The popular French and American term, "the jailor," gives a wrong impression of Sir Hudson Lowe. Though narrow-minded and martinet-like, he was still an English gentleman. There is a great deal of frivolous detail, but still the work cannot fail to be interesting. It may be considered semi-official. "Thirty folio volumes and several large boxes" of MSS. were carefully examined, and full access had to the Lowe and Government documents.

VIII. The Catacombs of Rome, as illustrating the Church of the first three Centuries. By the Right Rev. William Ingraham Kip, D. D., Missionary Bishop of California, author of "The Lenten Fast," &c., &c. New York: Redfield. Philadelphia: Henry Carey Baird. 1854. pp. 212.

We will frankly confess that we were a little suspicious of this book, and so we have read it through, every word, from beginning to end. The result is altogether favorable. There is not very much effort to find Episcopacy in the Catacombs, and what there is, the reader will perceive not to be very successful; but the testimony to primitive Christianity, as held by all evangelical churches, is unequivocal and beautiful.

As all our readers may not be acquainted with this subject, we will mention the material facts. Under the city of Rome and the adjacent country, extend excavations of unknown extent; some say to Ostia, twenty miles in one direction, and to Albano, twelve miles in the other. Nineteen, twenty-one, thirty-nine and even fifty, separate cemeteries have been enumerated as belonging to them. Rome is based on soft tufa or pozzolano, and the quarries, for such they were originally, were worked at an unknown period, probably by the people generally called Etruscans, long before the alleged era of Romulus. These excavations are mentioned in the Augustan age, and at an early period were used as cemeteries.

And here is the interesting point in the case. The earliest Chris

tians found there a hiding-place, and there they buried their dead. Multitudes of martyrs here reposed, and as the essence of the Christian's faith is often impressed upon his tomb-stone, we here find engraven on the soft walls of the catacombs, the views of the Church of the first three centuries. They are very sweet and beautiful. There are no pictures or sculptures of crucifixions, no agony, no gloom, no purgatory or prayers for the dead, no adoration of the Virgin or the saints, no personation of the Deity. All is Puritan simplicity, only with a softer and gentler element. Nor does the celibacy of the clergy find sanction there, for the minister's wife reposes in peace with the wives and children of his flock.

The tone of the inscriptions is very touching. "Victorina, in peace and in Christ." "In Christ. In the time of the Emperor Adrian, Marius, a young military officer, who had lived long enough, when with his blood, he gave up his life for Christ. At length he rested in peace. The well-deserving set up this with tears and in fear, [on account of the existing persecution,] on the 6th, Ides of December." On this tomb is inscribed a palm-branch. The dove is a frequent emblem. In memory of a child: "You have already begun to be among the innocent ones." Another: "Borne away by angels on the seventh, Ides of January." "Arethusa, in God." "Sweet Faustina, may you live in God." "Navira, in peace, a sweet soul (anima dulcis), who lived sixteen years and five months: a soul sweet as honey (anima meleiea.) This epitaph was made by her parents-the sign, a ship." Our Saviour, at his baptism, is represented as standing in the stream, and John pouring the water upon his head.

The work professes to be only a popular presentation of the most striking parts of various extensive publications; but it is well done. Father Bosio, we are told, spent more than thirty years (1567 to 1600) in exploring the Catacombs, and making drawings, &c. It became the absorbing passion of his life. His work was published, posthumuously, under the title of "Roma Sotteranea," by Father Severano, who added a chapter of his own, 1632. "The most important work was by Father Boldetti, custode of the Catacombs," 1720. He, too, passed more than thirty years in these examinations.

D'Agincourt, "an ardent student of Christian archæology, toward the close of the last century settled himself in Rome, intending to stay six months, but he remained fifty years, solely occupied in collecting and arranging the materials for his book on this subject, which did not appear till after his death. It is entitled, "Histoire de l'Art par les Monumens." More modern writers are, Münter, a Danish bishop, M.

Raoul Rochette, Gaume, Gerbet. M. Perret, a French artist, has an unpublished work, soon to appear at Paris. In England, Dr. Maitland published in 1846, "The Church in the Catacombs," and Mr. Macfarlane, a small work presenting a popular view.* Dr. Kip was at Rome in 1845, and entered the Catacombs, but for his materials relies on others, especially upon Arringhi's Latin translation of Bosio, two volumes, folio, Rome, 1651, 1659, of which he thinks there is but a single copy in this country.

We can well believe in the fascination of the subject. Even this small work leaves a most delightful impression. An indiscribable sweetness pervades these inscriptions. We pass sheer over councils and synods, sects and heresies, philosophies and rituals, and stand by the graves of those who had gathered their religion from the blessed Saviour himself. It is all soft gentleness, all faith and hope, heaven lying near, and the transition slight, to the green pastures and still waters of the heavenly paradise. It is divine, like the Gospels, like John's descriptions of the Master. Is not heaven softer and quieter than we think? "He giveth his beloved, sleep."

IX. WORKS ON RUSSIA AND TURKEY.

1. The Russo-Turkish Campaigns of 1828 and 1829, with a View of the present State of Affairs in the East. By Col. Chesney, R. A., &c., &c. New York: Redfield. Philadelphia: H. C. Baird. 1854. pp. 360.

2. The Russian Shores of the Black Sea, in the Autumn of 1852, with a Voyage down the Volga, and a Tour through the Country of the Don Cossacks. author of a Journey to Nepaul. edition. New York: Redfield. 1854. pp. 266.

By Lawrence Oliphant, From the third London Philadelphia: H. C. Baird.

3. The Knout and the Russians; or the Muscovite Empire, the Czar and his People. By Germain de Lagney. Translated from the French by John Bridgeman. New York: Harpers. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co. 1854. pp. 266. 4. The Czar and the Sultan; or Nicholas and Abdul Medjid, their private Lives and public Actions. By Adrian Gilson. To which is added, the Turks in Europe; their Rise and Decadence. By Francis Bouvet. New York: Harpers. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co. pp. 195.

* Preface.

5. Pictures from St. Petersburg. By Edward Jerrman. From the original German, by Frederick Hardman. New York: Putnam & Co. pp. 234.

We will give the reader what must necessarily be a brief, but what we will try to make a distinct and characteristic, notice of each of these books.

Col. Chesney was in Turkey at the time of the former war, (in 1828-9,) and prepared an account of it, which was to have been published in connection with his large work on the Euphrates and Tigris Expedition. Governmental difficulties having prevented this, he takes the occasion of the revived interest in these matters, to bring his work before the public. There are eleven chapters; the first nine give a full account of the former war; the tenth contains the causes of the present war, and the last, the resources of Turkey. The appendix gives the diplomatic, as well as the late secret correspondence. The preface is dated January 31, 1854. The whole is written in the military-despatch style, and gives a more favorable view of the power and character of Turkey, than is generally entertained.

The spirit of Mr. Oliphant's work is seen in an extract from his motto, taken from Custine. To travel intelligently in Russia is "discerner péniblement à tout propos deux nations luttant dans une multitude. Ces deux nations, c'est la Russie telle qu'elle est, et la Russie telle qu'on voudrait la montrer à l'Europe." The Russomania is very strong, and this is no doubt the prevalent feeling in England. Making allowance for it, the reader will find Mr. Oliphant's book one of the best that has appeared. He went from St. Petersburgh to Moscow by rail road; then down the Volga in a slow steamboat, to the country of the Don Cossacks; thence through the Crimea; and returned by Odessa and the Danube. The book is written with much intelligence, and with a slight piquancy that reminds one a little of Beckford and Curzon; it gives a good deal of information that was absolutely new to us. The narrative is not overlaid by reflection; Mr. Oliphant understands that in these days we want facts to know what to do, and money to do it with, and that reflection and advice are rather at a discount.

"The Knout and the Russians," is too ferocious against the Emperor; its object appears to be to say all the evil it can, in the most savage terms. This is bad policy, if it is designed to injure the Czar, for there is a necessary reäction in all fair minds. One becomes absolutely sick of the details of cruelty, oppression and falsehood. The army is bad, so are the nobility, the magistracy a living lie, the clergy

worst of all; the whole thing-Emperor, St. Petersburgh, finances, even the country and climate, a humbug. The book is very coarse scene-painting, lit up by tallow candles, in tin sconces.

"The Czar and the Sultan," does not profess to be more than a sketch of these personages, with some notices of the Russian and Turkish empires. The first is accomplished in about sixty pages; the latter in about twice as many. The Czar is here made to appear as severe, tyrannical, politic, rather vulgar, with flashes of goodness and humanity, but not a mere brute. Abdul Medjid is gentle, melancholy, but not without firmness and occasional severity. About one half the book is a historic treatise on the origin, present state and future of the Turks. We are informed that 50,000 copies of the French edition was sold in Paris in four days. The exciting nature of the subject, at the time, we must suppose had much to do with this.

The "Pictures," is not so recent a work, and is much more favorable in its tone to Russia. It is well-written and should be read as an off-set to some of the others. Even from it, however, one receives a melancholy impression as to the real condition of the country.

X. Vital Chemistry. Lectures on Animal Heat. By Thomas Spencer, M. D., late Professor of the Institutes and Practice of Medicine in the Medical Institution of Geneva College. Published by request of the Class. pp. 114.

The Atomic Theory of Life and Vital Heat, vegetable and animal, as balanced by the Agency of Water. By the same. Transactions of the Medical Society of the State of New York. pp. 75.

Dr. Spencer has brought out, in these works, a new theory of life and vital heat. It is rather deep water for most people, and we are not sure that our readers will understand it, the first time they read it over. We would not recommend it to be taken up after dinner. We found it very interesting, though our taste lies more in the direction of mind than matter, and confess our surprise that it has not attracted more general attention in this physical age. The following account of it has been furnished us, which our want of space has compelled us to abridge.

Harvey's "Circulation of the Blood," was a demonstration of the symmetric and visible channels, through which the streams and streamlets of blood, at once infusing heat and arousing to motion, flow in all animal life. The author's "Atomic Circulation" proposes the demonstration of a