trine of private judgment or private interpretation as an intellectual principle, what lies concealed in it now, and what may come forth from it hereafter. Once give the individual principle full play, and whatever be the result of a man's speculations on the Bible, you have not a word wherewith to resist him. His individual judgment is theoretically as good as your own, and if he be a keener logician than yourself, a thousand to one but he will beat you utterly out of the field, and set up his logical Rationalism completely over the head of your logical orthodoxy.

The conclusion, therefore, to which we come is this, that the letter of the Bible cannot be the basis of religious certitude; and that even if we did arrive at certitude through its mere verbal interpretation, the actual test would still be the reason of the interpreter.". p. 286, 287.

"The age in which we now live, an age universally fruitful in independent thinking, is fast driving the question of reason and authority as held by the Protestant world to a point. Multitudes fully conscious of the logical untenableness of their ordinary profession, have been impelled to one or the other extreme. Some, following out the principle of individualism, have seen it land them in the lowest abyss of Rationalism; while others, naturally shrinking from such a result, have thrown themselves into the arms of absolute authority. On this spectacle the Christian world is now gazing, and many is the throbbing heart which is asking, at the hands of the Protestant Church, in which its faith has been nurtured, an intelligible solution of this all-important question."-p. 319.

N.

ART. XXVII.-TYLER'S TACITUS.

The Histories of Caius Cornelius Tacitus, with notes, for colleges, by W. S. Tyler, Professor of Languages in Amherst College. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Philadelphia: Geo. S. Appleton. 1849.

PROF. Tyler happily avoids the two extremes to which annotators upon the Classics are exposed, a prolixity on one side that rides its author to death, and a brevity on the other that leaves every real difficulty unexplained, and expounds only what is already clear. His elucidations, for a writer so concise as Tacitus, are not too copious,

neither are they too sparse. An introductory essay he gives us, in the first place, abridged from the Prolegomena of L. Döderlein to his edition, on the characteristic style of Tacitus, which very much conduces to the proper understanding of his author throughout. In his own notes, he is always more suggestive than diffuse. While he neglects not the dry solutions of all grammatical difficulties, he endeavors, at the same time, by all proper information and alluring arts, to carry the reader into a lively sympathy with the author and his times. Especially is this his object in his Preliminary Remarks. In drawing a comparison, however, at the close of these, between the two great Latin historians, while he justly prefers the style of Livy, but gives, for graphic delineation of character, the palm to Tacitus, we wonder that he goes no further. We are somewhat surprised that he sets not forth the superior accuracy, diligence of research, and freedom, in a great measure, from national prejudice, exhibited in the works of Tacitus, contrasted with the great deficiency in these essential requisites of a faithful historian, which we are made to feel in the many discrepancies and Roman partialities that come before us in the writings of the earlier author.

From the greater number of editions of the Germania and Agricola of Tacitus, published of late in the United States, we would infer that these books are more read in our colleges than the Histories. Of these too, Prof. Tyler, some years ago, has given us, perhaps, the best edition. It is certainly very pleasing to be made acquainted with some of the peculiar traits of our respectable savage ancestors, of whom we have no reason to be ashamed, and to observe also the gentle satire of Tacitus in quietly contrasting the rude but healthful morals of the German and Britons, with the refined vices of his own countrymen; but, after all, it is in his Histories that the excellence of this author shines forth preeminent. It is in describing the turbulent commotions of his own times, when the mighty empire was already being tossed by those conflicting elements, which, in after times, resulted in its dissolution, himself the while no unconcerned spectator, that the strength of his tragic genius is best displayed. As no good American edition of the Histories, so far as we are aware, has before been published, those generally in use being very inapposite and deficient in their annotations, the present volume of Prof. Tyler, we think, supplies a desideratum. We trust it may lead to the more general and thorough study of this superior work of the old Latin historian.

W. M. N.

THE

MERCERSBURG REVIEW.

SEPTEMBER, 1849.

NO. V.

ART. XXVIII.-RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS.

By these words is indicated a period and a condition, which occupies a prominent place in Revelation, and which always has been, and should ever be, dear to the hearts and hopes of Christians of this period. "God hath spoken" oracularly, "by the mouth of all his holy prophets, which have been since the world began." Were there no other reason to urge us to an investigation of this future state of "all things," the fact that it forms the great burden of prophecy in all ages, would of itself, be sufficient. Whatever God hath spoken, deserves to be studied with diligence and prayer. But, especially, we should study profoundly and prayerfully what "he hath spoken," in so many different ways, and by so many different instruments, "by the mouth of all his holy prophets," men of the most exalted piety and profoundest wisdom-men admitted to the secrets of God, and his commissioned organs of communication to his creatures, in every age, "since the world began," till these extraordinary channels of revelation were closed. Surely a theme which occupies so large a portion of Revelation, should also legitimately occupy a large

VOL. I.-NO. V.

27

place in the thoughts and anticipations of God's people. There is a glorious vision, similar in its general outlines, which seemed always to be before the eyes of ancient seers, when by Divine illumination they passed from the sphere of the present and visible, into the region of the invisible and the spiritual. Individual peculiarities arising from idiosyncrasies of mind, or different points of vision, may be detected in all the prophets, but no one familiar with the glorious scenery of the world of prophecy, can fail to observe that one and the same great panorama was before them. * Invisibilia neque mutant, nec decipiunt: Eternal realities do not vary with fleeting centuries. Things seen and temporal only, are subject to change.

Surely, also, what God hath thus spoken, "at sundry times and in divers manners," it is his will that we should understand, as well as study, at least, so far as correct apprehensions are connected with full development of Christian character and the more perfect performance of duty. God" hath made known to us the mystery of his will, according to the good pleasure he hath purposed in himself," not to gratify our fancies or stimulate our curiosity merely, but that thereby "the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work," yea, brought to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."

With these convictions, let us explore, under the guidance of the spirit of Revelation, "the times of the restitution of all things."

"Restitution," in the original, is an exceedingly expressive word, its full meaning being, the restoration to its original state, of any thing which has been marred, thrown down or perverted. This application of the word to "all things," conveys by evident implication, a terrible truth, which ought to be distinctly kept in view in all our investigations, viz: that there has been an universal marring, degradation and perversion. Without this assumption, Revelation is is an enigma, and restoration has no meaning. "All things," as God made them, were "very good;" not only good in themselves, but in their mutual relations and connexions. Nature, as we usually denominate the external circumstances of man, sea, earth and sky, harmonized with man, and man with nature. Like different, but accordant parts, of some glorious

choral symphony, the work of a master mind, man and nature together, constituted the actualization of one great idea of the infinite mind. But "sin entered the world, and death by sin, and so death passed on all men, because all have sinned," and derangement, degradation and disorder in "all things," for sin always and everywhere produces confusion, disorder and wretchedness. Man still remains, and so does nature, but the original glory and, especially, the original harmony is gone-the beautiful ideal exists no longer. This fact of derangement and perversion, is not only testified explicitly in God's word, and made the basis of the whole scheme of restitution, but it is attested also by history and observation, ocular demonstration and awful experience, in every age. All the powers of man's nature have been implicated in the disorder introduced by sin. It has touched and tainted his understanding, his conscience, his affections, and his active energies: he feels its perverting influence in his religious instincts, his capacities for science and art, society and government. From the deteriorating influence of sin on the intellectual faculties of man, we find error in a thousand forms and in every age, and in reference to every subject. Everlasting truth is objectively and immutably the same, but the rays of truth, as they come from "the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness or shadow of turning," fall on mental optics, humid with prejudice, distorted by interest, or blinded by passion, and instead of "truth in the inward parts," the beautiful and blessed correlative of the objective reality, there is error in Protean forms and almost numberless varieties. From the perversion of man's religious instincts, we find a prolific growth in every period of Idolatry, Superstition, and Persecution. The pages of human history, devoted to the vagaries of the human conscience, the wild, fantastic freaks of conscientous wickedness, are among the saddest demonstrations of the perverting influence of sin on the nature of man. Science also, in its investigations and applications, owing to the influence of sin, has seldom or never been ancillary to piety as it was designed to be, in the original structure of "all things." In the world of science, He "for whom, and by whom, and to whom, are all things," is not "all in all," and consequently the key-note that would keep everything harmoni