tracts follow, some of which are by far the best productions of his pen. Never have we read a juvenile biography, more simple, more pathetic, or more evangelical, than that of little James Laing. Seventeen Expository Lectures follow, which we would commend to all young preachers, as an aid in this neglected part of duty. The second volume contains ninety sermons. These vary in style and merit; but all are characteristic, many are unusually excellent; and some are beautiful, ingenious, holy and edifying, beyond most in our day. Faithfulness, pungency, affection, and fearlessness, mark the series, as a whole.

The Three Divine Sisters, Faith, Hope, and Charity, etc., etc.

By the Rev. Thomas Adams, Minister at Willington, Bedforshire. With an Introduction by the Rev. W. H. Stowell, Independent College, Rotherham. New York. Robert Carter. 1847. 12mo. pp. 284.

THIS is the reprint of several Puritan treatises, remarkable for quaint brilliancy, and the peculiar wit and point of that day, sometimes united to great warmth, and everywhere replete with truth. Frequently the antithesis and the odd comparisons transcend the limits of modern rule, but no man will readily lay down the book, who has capacity for receiving its contents. Mr. Adams was in the ministry as early as 1612, and his works were published by himself in 1630. The titles will prove inviting: The Leaven-A Crucifix-Semper Idem-Heaven a GateMajesty in Misery-The Fool and his Sport-The Christian's Walk-Love's Copy-God's Bounty-Politic Hunting-and the Taming of the Tongue.

1. Man. in his physical, intellectual, social, and moral relations. -2. The Dawn of Civilization.-18mo.

Two charming little shilling-volumes concurrently published by the Religious Tract Society and the American Sunday School Union.

Washington and his Generals: by J. T. Headley, author of Napoleon and his Marshals, the Sacred Mountains, etc. In Two Volumes. New York. Baker & Scribner. 1847. 12mo. THE fine plates and clear typography of these volumes are their least attraction. Even before our notice can reach the press, the sale of the work is such, as to show that the author

continues to be a popular favorite. No writer has a more acute perception of what will suit the American taste; no one excels him in rapid description. He is even too rapid, for we descry numerous blemishes of carelessness in language, which one who is likely to be imitated by great numbers is sacredly bound to avoid. The conception of the plan is happy, and many will read with avidity, and learn with ease, those parts of American history, of which they would otherwise have remained forever ignorant.

The Bible not of Man: or the argument for the Divine Origin of the Sacred Scriptures, drawn from the Scriptures themselves. By Gardiner Spring, D. D., Pastor of the Brick Church, in the City of New York. Published by the American Tract Society. 12mo. pp. 319.

THE excellent author of this treatise has bestowed profound thought and diversified labour on his topic; the Internal Evidence of Christianity. The result is a book which we should rejoice to see in the hands of every doubter in the land; and which will be equally welcome to the scholar and the Christian. Nothing strikes us more favorably in the argument, than its easy flow from beginning to end. Irrefragable reasoning is stripped of the awkward encumbrances of technical logic, and is presented in a style of grave and composed elegance, often animated to fervour, such as is familiar to all hearers and readers of Dr. Spring. At present, we are constrained to be content with giving our warm commendation.

A Method for Prayer, with Scriptural expressions, proper to be used under each head. By the late Matthew Henry, Minister of the Gospel at Chester. New York. 1847. pp. 248.

No book on Prayer is more widely known than this; and we are glad that no change in religious fashion is likely to make it obsolete. It will prove a valuable monitor in private devotion; will suggest forms of prayer to such as need them; will reveal the riches of scriptural phraseology in connexion with this privilege; and will be a perpetual help to the minister of the sanctuary. To say more would be superfluous.

The Pleasantness of a Religious Life opened and proved. By Matthew Henry. New York. Robert Carter. 1847. pp. 192.

ANOTHER work from the same venerable source. Perhaps no man was ever more remarkably fitted to treat this particular subject, than Matthew Henry. A heavenly smile plays over every page of his great Exposition, and proves how truly he could say, as he does in the preface: "This doctrine of the pleasantness of religion is what I have long had a particular kindness for, and taken all occasions to mention." To our apprehension, he has never produced a page, which is not both delightful and edifying. Life of Joseph Hall, D.D., Bishop of Norwich, by James Hamilton, M. B. S. New York. Robert Carter. 1947. pp. 155. THE memoir under consideration was prepared for an edition of Bishop Hall's Contemplations, but was separately published, at Edinburgh, in 1838. There is something rare in it, as being from the pen of one who has no Episcopalian leanings. Bishop Hall's genius, learning, and piety, his satiric and poetic vein, his sententious and apothegmatic style, and his connexions with king James, with the Synod of Dort, and with the Commonwealth, conspire to make this a highly interesting little book.

The Christian Remembrancer. By Ambrose Serle, Esq. Author of Horde Solitariae the Church of God, etc. New York. R. Carter. 1847. 18mo. pp. 349.

MR. SEARLE was a layman, long connected with the military expeditions of Cornwallis; a man of varied learning, especially versed in the original languages of scripture, and remarkable for the depth of his spiritual experience. He was an intimate friend of the Rev. William Romaine, of London, who addressed to him some of his most valuable letters. Some of his other works may be more full of erudition, but none of them is richer in saving truth, than this. It is a wonderful collection of such thoughts as fix the attention, build up the faith, and melt the heart with the balm of a free gospel. We hazard nothing in calling it one of the most useful manuals of the generation which has passed away.

An Essay on the Life and Writings of Edmund Spenser, with a special exposition of the Fairy Queen. By John S. Hart, A. M. Principal of the Philadelphia High School. New York and London. Wiley & Putnam. 1847. 8vo. pp. 514.

ALTHOUGH Well aware of Principal Hart's classical and general culture, it was not without a feeling of agreeable surprise that we received this proof of his untiring industry and rare capacity for literary labour in the midst of engrossing occupations. We have not waited to examine the volume in detail before expressing our satisfaction, that so interesting a portion of English literature has been taken up by a thoroughly educated scholar. The fault most likely to be found with the essay is the want of transcendental aesthetics, a want very happily supplied by the union of strong sense and scholarship with a sound and healthy taste, formed on the wholesome and substantial diet of our educated men before it became fashionable to feed on garbage. Besides the aid afforded by the critical analysis and copious specimens of Spenser's poems, the concluding pages contain ample proof of the author's talent for discriminating criticism. The volume will strike every eye as one of the best samples of American typography.

The Germanica and Agricola of Caius Cornelius Tacitus, with notes for Colleges. By W. S. Tyler, professor of the Latin and Greek languages in Amherst College. New York and London: Wiley and Putnam. 1847. pp. 186.

THIS is an excellent manual for the use of students in colleges. The editor is a sound and thorough scholar, who, by the experience of many years, has acquired a just apprehension of the peculiar necessities of the pupil, together with an intimate knowledge of the idioms and obscurities that mark the style of Tacitus. He appears to have availed himself carefully, of the researches of German editors and philologists for the elucidation of the author, and condensed the result into a series of brief and pertinent notes, just sufficient to illustrate the text, and quicken the interest and diligence of the scholar, instead of encouraging his indolence by a running exposition. The text, with the life of Tacitus, occupies 74 pages; the remainder is filled with notes. The mechanical execution of the work is uncommonly attractive, and highly creditable to the publishers. Tacitus is justly denominated by Macaulay, the greatest of Latin historians, and he might have added, the most profound and original of Roman writers. We rejoice that these two master-pieces of this author have been prepared for the perusal of American scholars in a form so in

viting, by one who is able so skilfully to explore, and so happily to disclose the surpassing virtues of the original.

Classical Series. Edited by Drs. Schmitz and Zumpt. C. Julii Cæsaris Commentarii de Bello Gallico. Philadelphia:

Lea and Blanchard. 1847.

THE numerous critical editions of the classics superintended by foreign and American scholars, issuing from the press in this country, is a very favourable indication of the progress of this branch of education among us. The Messrs. Chambers of Edinburgh, in connexion, it would appear, with Messrs. Lea and Blanchard of Philadelphia, have confided to the hands of Dr. Schmitz, rector of the High School of Edinburgh, and Dr. Zumpt, professor in the University of Berlin, the preparation of a series of the Latin classics usually employed in Schools and Colleges. It is proposed to furnish an ascending series of such publications, presenting the most correct text, furnished with explanatory notes, and embellished with maps and illustrative engravings, at a very reduced price. This edition of Cæsar is a duodecimo of 231 pages, and is a very cheap and serviceable work, containing a great deal in a small compass.

Titus Livius. Selections from the first five books, together with the twenty-first and twenty-second books entire. Chiefly from the text of Alscherfski. With English notes for Schools and Colleges. By J. L. Lincoln. Professor of Latin in Brown University. With an accompanying plan of Rome and a map of the passage of Hannibal. New York: W. Appleton and Company, 200 Broadway. Philadelphia: G. S. Appleton, 148 Chestnut street. 1847.

THIS work is one of the educational publications of Messrs. Appleton & Co, and is executed in the tasteful style and elegance of other works of this series. It appears, from the following extract from preface, that the author of the notes has a just sense of the assistance which the student should receive from an annotator. "It has been the aim of the editor to furnish such assistance in the notes as is needful to facilitate the progress of the diligent student; but above all things to avoid that pernicious help, whether in the form of its indiscriminate translation, or of unnecessary explanation, which precludes all effort on the