We have heretofore expressed our want of full approbation of the proceedings of this Institution. The bequest was for the purpose of "increasing and diffusing knowledge among men." In the "programme of organization," adopted by the Regents, the following is laid down as the sixth principle: "The will makes no restriction in favour of any particular kind of knowledge; hence all branches are entitled to a share of attention."

But almost the entire funds are devoted to natural science, that is, to mathematics, natural philosophy and natural history, apparently because the Secretary has a taste for these branches of study. The expenditures for the year were $35,000. Of this there were paid for meteorology, about $2,500-that is, for examining the weather at a great number of points; for transportation and exchange of a great mass of reports of learned societies and kindred works, $2,200; for publishing the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, $6,200. Of these last, three were astronomical, one geological, one chemical, and only one not purely scientific, viz.: Mr. Mayer's Observations on Mexican History and Archæology. The Institution claims, also, to have stimulated or induced the publication of four other works, with another in prospect. These are, one astronomical, one geological, one on natural history, another on "the organic remains known as Crinoidea," and another, a catalogue of "dipterous insects." On the other hand, for the cost of books for the library, in fulfilment of the law of Congress making an annual appropriation for that purpose, "not exceeding $25,000," there was paid $2,019; and for the gallery of art, the munificent sum of $82.

We suppose we ought to take some faint comfort in the fact that for the year upon which we formerly remarked, the expenditure for books was only $1000, and for the next year the estimate is $3,000. We intend therefore to persevere. Public opinion must make some impression.

We confess that we feel with Mr. Choate. What a magnificent opportunity to gather the grandest library on earth! Say $20,000 a year for the finest editions of the finest books in the world! And greatly this nation needs the fine arts, if ever a nation did. Might not the Smithsonian Institution spare even one or two thousand dollars a year, to offer a premium for the finest picture or statue producible, or to buy at least one work of art? Would not a picture by Leslie, or a marble by Powers, do something for "knowledge among men?" Sea-weed and "dipterous insects" are very well in their way, and it is well enough for a dozen people who have a vocation for it, to be looking at the weather. Nor do we object to a fifty-second asteroid, though

the business is "a little overdone." Nor are the "ammonia cobalt bases" to be despised; but still, is all knowledge of the material kind? Are we always to work with mere matter?

We ask Prof. Felton, who is one of the Regents, whether there is no "knowledge" in the Agamemnon of Eschylus, or in Homer, or Isocrates? And if there be, then can there not be found a scholar in England or America to make a classical "Smithsonian Contribution?" We had understood, too, that even in the domain of pure science, there were names like Plato and Aristotle, Kant, Coleridge, Mackintosh, and Wayland. Prof. Henry must, at Princeton, at least have sat in the Faculty with professors of mental and moral science.

The Smithsonian Institution is lop-sided-the word is in Websterand it is heaviest precisely on the side where weight is not needed so much in America.

We only add that Prof. Henry's view of the controversy between Prof. Morse and himself in relation to the telegraph, as endorsed by the Regents, is given at length. There are also large extracts from lectures and correspondence.

III. THE PROTESTANT THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA: being a Condensed Translation of Herzog's Real Encyclopædia. With additions from other Sources. By Rev. J. H. A. Bomberger, D. D. Assisted by distinguished theologians of various denominations. Parts VII. and VIII. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston. 1858, 1859.

The first six numbers of this work complete the first volume, including 768 compact, double column pages, but so beautifully printed as not to be at all trying to the eyes. The publishers are right in saying, "that each successive part has not only met the expectations at first awakened, but has elicited higher commendations than those previously bestowed upon the work." We ourselves are in the state of mind described. The praise, given rather hesitatingly at first, has become more and more hearty as the work has proceeded. Not that we approve of every sentiment in it, or suppose that every thing is handled precisely as it ought to be. But we heartily commend this Encyclopædia as a great work. Such a one has not hitherto existed in English for scope and comprehensiveness. We intend to bind a set for constant reference, and do not see how any minister can get on without it.

IV.-LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF SCOTLAND AND ENGLISH PRINCESSES, Connected with the Regal Succession of Great Britain. By AGNES STRICKLAND, Author of The Lives of the Queens of England. Vol. VII. New York: Harpers. Philadelphia: For sale by Lippincott & Co., 1859. Pp. 470.

The life of Mary Stuart is at length finished with this book. It embraces five volumes, including sixty-two chapters and 1851 pages.

The first volume was published by the Harpers in 1852. It has therefore extended over about seven years.

It has evidently been a labour of love. Most patiently and carefully has Miss Strickland examined everything which could possibly throw light upon this sad tragedy, and, for the first time, we have full materials for judging the case.

"The lineage of Mary Stuart," the authoress remarks, "through the posterity of her grand-daughter, Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, still reigns in Great Britain, Prussia, Denmark, Hanover and other Protestant States; and through that of Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, the youngest daughter of Charles I., in Spain, Portugal, Austria, Naples, Sardinia, Modena, and, before the expulsion of the fleurs-de-lys, in France. More books have been written about Mary Stuart, than all the Queens in the world put together."

The style of this elaborate work is hardly equal to its merits. It ought to be, one would think, a great favourite with ladies, yet we fear that the number who have gone through the whole, is not large. Not that the style is a bad one. It is good, perspicuous English; the reader never mistakes the meaning of the writer. But the detail is very minute, and there is a want of that picturesque power of which Scott was so great a master; or of its substitute, clear, pellucid narrative. The story is told plainly,-fully told,-but the authoress has no talent for story-telling, while she has every qualification that belongs to a clear-headed, pure-minded, warm-hearted English woman.

If the reader, however, will make this abatement, almost every other excellence will be found in this work. There must be resolution to go through at the outset, not as a mere recreation, but as a means of improvement and instruction. In such mood, the volumes will be found an unfailing resource both for employment and real value.

As a specimen of Miss Strickland's style, we quote a part of the description of Linlithgow, where Mary was born:

This chamber was paved, after the French fashion, with glazed tiles of various colours. A few of these yet remain, and where exposed to catch the sunlight, appear like a coarse enamel; but the floor is now thickly carpeted with short velvet sod, interspersed with self-sown turf flowers. Instead of the costly tapestry hangings which mantled those walls at Mary's birth, long grass, mingled with hare-bells, thistles and the wild white rose of Scotland, are waving from every crevice in mournful luxuriance. The roof and floor of the upper chamber having both fallen in, the blue vault of heaven forms its only canopy. Two deeply embayed windows open on the beautiful miniature lake flowing beneath the castle terraces, and command a glorious prospect of fair pastures and woods, with the stately abbey church of St. Michael to the left, the town in front, and the Highland hills in the distance, to the right. These windows are furnished with stone benches, facing each other, and form pleasant retreats for private conversation. The chimney-piece is broad and low, supported by painted stone pillars.

Edward I., of England first built a castle on this site. James III. re-built one side, James IV. another, James V. a third, with the chapel and porch; and James VI.com

The palace

pleted the quadrangle, by adding the fine new buildings to the north. consists of four towers, between which the court, the chapel, and the rest of the apartments are situated. In the court is a fountain, richly adorned with statues and bassorelievo groups.

It would, we suppose, have been too much to have expected a lady, and an Episcopalian, to be impartial in the estimate of Mary. The entire work, therefore, is constructed on the principle that the Queen of Scots was innocent and injured. John Knox, of course, is represented as a barbarous fanatic. Still, we are not aware that Miss Strickland suppresses any fact. Enough appears, therefore, in the narrative to overturn a large part of her theory. The settled judgment of mankind which has made Mary as frail as beautiful, and as unprincipled as accomplished, and which has set Knox among the heroes of the Church, will hardly be altered by this work-as interesting and valuable in its narrative, as romantic and unsound in its reasoning.

V. THE HISTORY OF THE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, CALLED METHODISM, Considered in its different denominational forms, and its relations to British and American Protestantism. By ABEL STEVENS, LL. D. Vol. I. From the Origin of Methodism to the death of Whitefield. Eighth Thousand. New York: Carlton & Porter. Pp. 480.

We are disposed, in the main, to agree with the eulogies which have been pronounced upon this work. It is extremely desirable that we should have extended and thorough histories of each denomination of Christians, written by themselves, with that minuteness of research and that enthusiasm which only belongs to any thing when done con We had hoped, too, that this work would exhibit the breadth and philosophy which we desired, from his reputation, to accredit to Dr. Stevens.

amore.

We regret to say, that we are, in the latter respect, disappointed. The narrowness which has been always characteristic of American Methodists, appears painfully in this book.

Dr. Stevens remarks in the Preface: "I have attempted to write the history of Methodism in a liberal spirit, and to consider it, not as a sectarian, but as a general religious movement. I have endeavoured steadily to keep this point of view till the movement was reduced into sectarian organizations."

Let us look a little at the fulfilment of this intention. The view given of Lutheranism, for instance, is most unjust:

But though the doctrine of "Justification by Faith" was the dogmatic germ of the Reformation, that great revolution took chiefly an ecclesiastical direction, and became more an attempt to overthrow the organic system of Popery, by the re-assertion of certain Apostolic doctrines, than an evangelical revival of the spiritual life of the Church; hence its early loss of moral power. * * * Dealing ostensibly with the historical pretensions of the Church, it introduced at last the "Historical Criti

cism," which, notwithstanding its inestimable advantages to Biblical exegesis, degenerated, under the English deistical writings that entered Germany about the epoch of Methodism, into Rationalism, and subverted both the spiritual life and the doctrinal orthodoxy of the Continental Protestant Churches, and, to a great extent, substituted infidelity for the displaced Popery.

In this shallow way are thirty millions of Protestants, whose religious life has been comparatively but slightly affected by Methodism, disposed of, because Dr. Stevens' notion is that nearly all of modern piety comes directly or indirectly from Methodism. But it needs only a comparatively slight acquaintance even with one of the Lutheran churches of Pennsylvania, to see that this is an unworthy caricature. Lutheranism, while not incapable of an external impression, yet grows up mainly from itself; it has a life of its own; its piety, as to its main force, does not depend upon Methodism; it is an almost entirely distinct development.

But the Reformed Churches are treated still more cavalierly. All that they have done for the evangelical piety of the world is thus summed up:

Puritanism began its work of reformation and honest rebellion. But Puritanism, with all its virtues, had profound and inexorable vices. * The vigour of its Commonwealth has illustrated the name of England in the history of the world; but its reaction under the Restoration spread over the country as great, if not greater, demoralization than had preceded it under the papal reigns. The court became a kind of a royal brothel, &c.

Methodism, of course, was the only panacea when Lutheranism had run its course, and substituted "infidelity for Popery;" and Puritanism had issued in "demoralization as great, if not greater, than had preceded it under the papal reigns."

We beg leave to ask, Where was the Church of Scotland? Where the Reformed Church of Holland? Where the Huguenots? Where the Church of Switzerland? of Geneva? the German Reformed Church? How much is Presbyterianism indebted to Methodism? especially to Wesleyan Methodism? The visits of Whitefield to Scotland and America were indeed the occasion of great good, but it was not the introduction of a new element. The revivals of his time were like previous revivals in Scotland, and Edwards and the Tennents, in America, entered into them as congenial and familiar. Dr. Stevens injures his cause by this very poor attempt at the philosophy of history.

When the author leaves the domain of philosophy and comes down to the more familiar region of biography, his work immediately assumes a more agreeable character. We are pleased to find John and Charles Wesley of gentle blood, and to see how their mother trained them for their work. We are interested in the "spiritual noises" which puzzled Southey, Priestley, and Isaac Taylor. The explanation of the latter is curious. Is it lucus a non lucendo, or does it merely put puzzlement