always frown upon any attempt, large or small, to alter what has been left as a legacy to mankind. We should as soon think of profaning a sepulchre, as of altering the printed words of the dead.

XII.-THE TRUE GLORY OF WOMAN, as Portrayed in the Beautiful Life of the Virgin Mary, Mother of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. By Rev. H. HARBAUGH, A.M. Philadelphia: LINDSAY & BLAKISTON. 1858. Pp. 263. KNOWING the tendencies of the German Reformed Church, just now, we have looked over this book very carefully. Mr. Harbaugh denies emphatically the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, and the doctrine that she ought to be worshipped or prayed to as intercessor. He evidently inclines to the opinion, on what grounds it is certainly very difficult to say, that she was the holiest saint that ever lived or ever will live, "shining amid the hosts of the glorified with a peculiar effulgence of saintly light."

We regret very much to find Mr. Harbaugh maintaining that the Virgin Mary was always a virgin. The notion is entirely unnecessary, opposed to the natural meaning of Scripture and encouraging to superstition. The argument, as he gives it himself, is decidedly against him. Any candid and unprepossessed mind would be convinced by his chapter on "The Ever Virgin," that the probability was decidedly against Mr. H.

In other respects the book is interesting. The Virgin was undoubtedly a most sweet and lovely character, one that all Christians would have loved to dwell on, had the matter not been overstrained. It is unfortunate for Mr. H.'s own purpose that he should have given any countenance to superstitious ideas.

XIII.-THE HAPPY HOME. BY KIRWAN. New York: HARPERS. For sale in Philadelphia by LIPPINCOTT & Co. 1858. Pp. 206.

THIS seems a very sensible book on the means of securing the highest of earthly enjoyments-a happy home. We are pleased to see that Dr. Murray is alive to the importance of physical training -a thing we all talk about, but in which so little progress is made. He is earnest, too, in regard to the value of cheerfulness. We are pleased to be able heartily to commend everything in a work by this author. And we fully agree with him, that while God is Sovereign, yet He has "ordained that his mercy should flow in the channels of his own providing, and that it should be vouchsafed to the children of his faithful people. The seed of the righteous shall inherit the earth."

XIV. MENSURATION AND PRACTICAL GEOMETRY; containing Tables of Weights and Measures, &c. &c., to which is appended a Treatise on the Carpenter's Slide-rule and Gauging. By CHARLES H. HASWELL, Civil and Marine Engineer. New York: HARPERS; Philadelphia: LIPPINCOTT & Co. 1858. Pp. 322.

WE are inclined to think very favorably of this work as a practical guide for students, mechanics, and engineers. The author has had the aid and advice of Professor Church, of West Point, and Professor Docharty, Free Academy, New York. He claims especial consideration for his work in relation to "the essential points of the extent of the figures submitted, as well in their number as variety of section, and in the introduction of rules for determining their centres of gravity." We have examined the work with some care, and are pleased with it.

XV. OUR GOVERNMENT: an Explanatory Statement of the System of Government of the Country, presenting a view of the Government of the United States, and of those of the several States; with the Construction of Constitutional Provisions, and a Practical Notice of their Administration. A Manual for Schools, Academies, and Popular Use. By MORDECAI MCKINNEY. Second Edition. Philadelphia: Published by the Author. P. 338. THE Constitution of the United States is first given. The whole work is then divided into two general parts-1. Of the Government of the United States. 2. Of the Governments, in general, of the several States. The powers of all the departments and officers are defined, with references to legal decisions in doubtful cases. The nature of States, counties, cities, boroughs, is explained. The whole furnishes a great mass of information, clearly stated. It is a manual in which one can readily find any information as to our political organic powers. We commend it very cordially.

XVII.-WYOMING; its History, Stirring Incidents, and Romantic Adventures. By GEORGE PECK, D.D. With Illustrations. New York: HARPERS. For sale in Philadelphia by LIPPINCOTT & Co. 1858. Pp. 432.

Dr. Peck has here carefully and laboriously brought together a great variety of information. There is first a general sketch of the history of the Wyoming Valley, in about sixty pages, followed by about twenty sketches of old settlers with the Indian fights and escapes, which made that region so interesting. There are very full accounts of the battle under Colonel Butler, and of the difficulties between the Pennsylvanians and Connecticut people. The sympathies of Dr. Peck are very strongly, and, perhaps, not quite impartially, with the Connecticut people.

This book is not, of course, a history, properly so called, but rather a collection of sketches which may be wrought into history. While especially attractive to the descendants of the settlers and to the present inhabitants of Wyoming, it possesses a wider interest, as illustrating the character of the hardy settlers of the country.

XVIII-MEN OF THE OLDEN TIME. By REV. CHARLES A. SMITH, D.D., author of "Illustrations of Faith," "Exposition of Mark and John," &c. Philadelphia: LINDSAY & BLAKISTON. 1858, pp. 202.

DR. SMITH, the author of these sketches, is pastor of the Western Church of this city. He is a practised writer, having been the author of the works mentioned in the title of this book, as also the editor, for some years, when in connection with the Lntheran Church, of a literary magazine.

From the history of nine of the ancients mentioned in the Old Testament, a single theme is deduced, as in "Cain; Modern Skepticism," "Nimrod; Unsanctified Ambition," &c. The points are well made, and sometimes with an interesting ingenuity, while the lessons of instruction are admirably drawn.

Thus, in the sketch of Cain's worship, the analogy is drawn between his skepticism, and the form of it now fashionable. The worship of Cain was not idolatrous, but intellectual; it was proud, repudiating the idea of sinfulness and an atonement; it was a religion of nature and natural laws. Infidelity, in principle, in spirit, with all its boast of progress, has not advanced a step beyond Cain. Its history shows nothing but myriad methods of rejecting the cross and carrying out the dictates of an unsanctified will.

Dr. Smith is remarkable for high and uncompromising and withal simple views of the cross. He does not regard it as merely valuable or wonderful, but as every thing. "Man," he says, "is but a constant repetition of himself. Moral systems, opinions, thoughts, impulses, are all old. The entire history of the world, from the moment that sin entered it, is only a record of faith in God as he is revealed on the cross, and the repudiation of Christ's law and sacrifice of love. All martyrdoms and self-denials, all the activities of real benevolence, are to be ascribed to the one principle; all persecutions and wrongs to the other."

The whole spirit of the work is an exemplification of this principle.

XIX.-FRED. MARKHAM IN RUSSIA; or, the Boy Travelers in the Land of the Czar. By W. H. G. KINGSTON, Esq., author of "Salt Water," "Manco," &c. With numerous Illustrations. New York: HARPERS. 1858, pp. 315.

A VERY interesting book for bright young people, with much information that older people do not generally have. The descriptions are clear and sufficiently minute, without being tedious. The two boys, with their notions and adventures, give freshness to the whole. It is readable by anybody that reads at all.

XX.-NOTES, CRITICAL AND PRACTICAL, ON THE BOOK OF NUMBERS: Designed as a General Help to Biblical Reading and Instruction. By GEORGE BUSH, late Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Literature in the New York City University. New York: IVISON & PHINNEY. Chicago: S. C. GRIGGS & Co. 1858. Pp. 475.

WE are happy to recognize the learning of Professor Bush, and his fitness in many respects to comment upon Scripture. It is perhaps remarkable that, considering his devotedness to the vagaries of Swedenborg, there is, on the whole, so much good sense in his commentaries, and so much freedom from fanciful interpretations. Many of his typical views are those long recognized as correct, and authenticated, some of them, by subsequent Scripture.

But who can touch pitch and not be defiled? Let the reader take as an illustration of the influence of the "New Jerusalem Church" upon a Presbyterian, the following on the rebellion of Miriam and Aaron. They "spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married."

"We are," says Prof. Bush, "inclined on the whole to the opinion that the whole transaction was ordered or overruled with reference to a typical hearing, viz. that Moses should stand as a type of Christ, Aaron of the Jewish priesthood, Miriam of the Jewish synagogue or body of the people, and the Ethiopian or Cushite woman, of the Gentile church espoused by faith to the Lord."

Where Prof. Bush gets the following dictum, except out of Maimonides, we do not know: "Angels and divine theophanies are never seen by the natural eye." Strange to say, this occurs in the narrative of Balaam. How then did the ass see the angel? Can an ass have what he calls "a supernatural couching of the inner eye"? To make the whole a mere vision of Balaam, opens a path to almost any looseness of interpretation in the plain narratives of Scripture. On the whole, there is much that is valuable in Prof. Bush's commentary, but it must be read, like those of the Germans, with constant care and allowance.

XX.-HISTORY OF KING RICHARD THE SECOND OF ENGLAND. By JACOB ABBOTT. With Engravings. New York: HARPERS. For sale in Philadelphia by LIPPINCOTT & Co. 1858. Pp. 347.

HISTORY OF KING RICHARD THE THIRD OF ENGLAND. By the same. Same Publishers. 1858. Pp. 337.

VERY interesting books. Jacob Abbott writes with a peculiar picturesque power. No one, whether old or young, can easily take up these volumes and lay them down without finishing them. The traits of each of the characters are so vividly painted that "the good queen," the Black Prince, and "the little queen" make an impression that often fails to be made by more elaborate history. The statement in regard to the houses of York and Lancaster is very clear. Mr. Abbott aims to set aside the poetry and romance that have gathered around the facts, and to give us the simple truth. For children old enough to take interest in history they are invaluable.

XXI. THE WORKS OF TACITUS. The Oxford Translation, revised. With Notes. In two volumes. New York: HARPERS. Philadelphia: for sale by Lippincott & Co. 1858, pp. 464, 496.

THE first volume contains the Annals; the second contains the History, Germany, Agricola, and Dialogue on Orators. Tacitus is one of the books that is readable in a translation. The Germany, Agricola, and Dialogue concerning Oratory, any of our readers might take up, as they would a modern book, and be interested in them. It is true, that the unrivalled style of the original can hardly appear in a translation.

It is well known that there are allusions to the Christians and a tolerably full description of the Jews, in Tacitus, and in the Germany and Agricola, very interesting allusions to the ancient Germans and Britons.

XXII-A CYCLOPEDIA OF COMMERCE AND COMMERCIAL NAVIGATION. Edited by J. SMITH HOMANS and J. SMITH HOMANS, jr. With Maps and Engravings. New York: HARPERS. Philadelphia: for sale by Lippincott & Co. 1858, pp. 2007.

THIS very large and, in many respects, excellent work is based upon McCulloch's Dictionary of Commerce and the Encyclopedia Brittanica. Twenty-five American works are referred to as authorities, and eighteen foreign. Each commercial place in the world has an article, and each object of commerce. Leading legal decisions are also given. Tabular views are given from the treasury

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