A description of the books of the New Testament is then given, with an explanation of texts liable to be misunderstood. A chapter succeeds on reading the Bible, with instructions. A great variety of miscellaneous information follows.

As a manual for common use of the Scriptures, we commend this work, earnestly and cordially.

VI. Biography of Elisha Kent Kane. delphia: Childs & Peterson. 1858.

By William Elder. Philapp. 416.

The difficulties in the way of a thoroughly popular biography of Dr. Kane were almost as appalling as those which he encountered in the Polar Seas. The great events of his life had been written by himself in a style which few could hope to equal. They were set in light. The world had them by heart. Then of Dr. Kane's earlier travels and adventures in India, China, and Egypt, the journals had perished, and scarcely a record remained. Under these circumstances, it is questionable whether it would not have been better to have written merely a sketch of Dr. Kane to be prefixed to future editions of the Arctic Explorations.

But if a full biography were to be written, two courses were open. The one which was chosen by Dr. Elder was to write a criticism on Dr. Kane; an analysis of his character; a review of his life and adventures; a defence of the greatness that was in him; an apology for his noble qualities.

Dr. Elder wrote, we fear, with a constant and uneasy consciousness of these things: First, that he had not much material for a biography that had not been exhausted; next, that the eyes of the world were upon him, and that something must be produced worthy of the occasion; and then, that the world would imagine that he would be carried away by enthusiasm, and indulge in indiscriminate eulogy; which expectation he should disappoint by his philosophical coolness. All tended to make him artificial, to throw him into his bad style.

For Dr. Elder has two styles, perfectly distinct from each other: one dry, husky, and uninteresting; the other, instinct with life, and filled with spark. ling interest to the brim. As has been exemplified a hundred times in literature, he prefers Paradise Regained to Paradise Lost, the Hints from Horace, to Childe Harold. His philosophy is not remarkable, his mysticism very bad, his didactics rather dull.

His other style is the one in which he should have written Kane. He should have left the critical, and above all Walnut Street and the Fifth Avenue, entirely outside of the pleasant nook where he should have told a Robinson Crusoe story to those who would have gone any distance to have heard it. He should have filled his heart genially with the theme and told the story— a continuous narrative-how Elisha Kane was a brave and noble boy, like Admiral Nelson, of a sickly frame, and how he yearned for adventure, and

what he did until he grew up. Then, how he went into the Hospital, before he graduated, and wrote a great thesis. How he sailed for China, and what he saw there and in Luzon. Then, how he travelled in India in the suite of an Indian prince, and how he hobnobbed with Lepsius in Egypt, and nearly killed himself climbing the statue of Memnon. Then, how he went to Africa and visited the King of Dahomey, who amuses himself cutting off heads, and has a wife for every day in the year. Then, instead of defending him about the romantic exploit in Mexico, he should have told the story con amore, and put the defence into the Appendix.

The Arctic Expeditions are actually shirked, the part of Hamlet left out, not by particular desire, but by the faint-heartedness of Dr. Elder fearing to attempt a twice-told tale. He should have felt instinctively, “That will never do." Cannot a man tell the stories of Thermopyla and Marathon so as to be interesting? Does not Everett fill a house with a lecture on Washington? And did not Irving make the old story of Columbus interesting? A biographer has a different position from a reviewer. Dr. E. should have taken the bull by the horns, and deliberately, skilfully, graphically, have written a history of the particulars of the expeditions, reducing the excessive detail, bringing out in relief the striking points, and sketched for us Sir John Franklin, Lady Franklin, Sir John Ross, and all the men of Polar enterprise. He should have thrown the prismatic light of his story-telling genius upon the background of Arctic day and night, and struggled with De Foe himself for the palm. He had Dr. Hayes, Goodfellow, our friend Bonsall, and others, to talk to. He should have saturated himself in the Polar Seas until he could have written out the whole matter, heart and soul, leaving out the scientific detail, and making a book that would have enchanted all boys from ten years old to-seventy.

The reader must not understand that the book, as it stands, is devoid of interest. We will all read it; all be pleased with the thorough and sincere admiration for Dr. Kane; all be gratified with the appreciation of his character. There are many fine points in it; interesting anecdotes and remarks are preserved. And no one will read the book without thinking more highly than before of its heroic subject, and, we may add, of the heart of his biographer. There is a conscientious faith in Dr. Kane's heroism and true greatness which passes electrically from author to reader, and this is saying

much.

VII. The New American Cyclopædia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge. Edited by George Ripley and Charles A. Dana. A-Araguay. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1858. pp. 752. This is a very beautiful royal octavo book. The publishers must, of course, be aware that there will be some prejudice against it, from the names of the editors, who are well known to be of the intense New York Tribune

school. We have looked through this volume somewhat carefully, to see whether it is conservative enough to recommend. The Preface states very plainly: "The discussion of the controverted points of science, philosophy, religion, or politics, does not enter within the compass of its plan. Neither the editors nor their collaborators, have attempted or desired to make it a vehicle for the expression of personal notions. The various articles have been intrusted, as far as possible, to writers, whose studies, position, opinions, and tastes, were a guarantee of their thorough information, and which furnished a presumption of their fairness and impartiality." Nearly a hundred writers have, the editors state, taken part in the preparation of this volume.

On the whole, it would seem that care has been taken to avoid any irreligious or infidel sentiments. The tone is coolly philosophic, and Christian language is generally, though not always, used, thus:

"AARON, son of Amram, of the tribe of Levi, elder brother of Moses, and divinely appointed to be his spokesman in the embassy to the Court of Pha raoh. By the same authority, avouched in the budding of his rod, he was chosen the first high priest," &c.

Under "ADAM," we are informed, that,

"The history of Adam, in common with that of the whole antediluvian world, as contained in Genesis, is, by some, treated as an allegory, intended to convey to the simple intellect of an uncultured people, an intelligible account of the mystery of the world's creation, and to explain some of the momentous questions involved in this earthly being. Others contend for a literal interpretation of the narrative. The question of a common origin of mankind, has been much considered of late years, and investigated upon data carefully collected by ethnologists. The controversy has not yet been scientifically settled.".

The moral views are not always unexceptionable. Thus, under "Actors and Actresses," we learn that, "as a body, they have been, down to a very recent period, and are still even, to some extent, regarded as social pariahs. With the increase of intelligence and liberality, this feeling is fast passing away, and actors and actresses are beginning to be judged like the members of all other professions, by their public capacity and private worth." A little further on we read: "There is a lavish promiscuousness about the notions of all, male and female, on the subject of family relations, otherwise they are models of excellence, being kind mothers, children, and fathers." There is, occasionally, an inexcusable carelessness. The Pennsylvania reader will hardly believe that we are quoting verbatim et literatim:

66 Allegheny City, an important manufacturing town, in the vicinity of Pittsburg, on the left bank of the Monongahela, opposite the junction of the Allegheny, Ohio, aud Birmingham Rivers."

If this were intended as a hoax, it would be considered overdone.
There is, too, a want of scientific clearness in some places. Analytical

Geometry is disposed of in sixteen lines and a half. The unscientific reader is "sent to April," in this sentence: "The term analytical geometry is, however, usually so limited as to exclude the consideration of the rate at which a geometrical magnitude changes, and only to deal with the changing qualities themselves." Surely, something better than that might have been said.

With these drawbacks, there is much to commend. The articles are generally of convenient length, generally well-written, and contain much infor mation. The whole is to be completed in fifteen volumes.

VIII. Messiah's Reign; or, the Future Blessedness of the Church and the World. By Rev. William Ramsey, D.D. Philadelphia: Joseph M. Wilson. 1857. pp. 247.

This volume is invested with a mournful interest. The hand that penned it is cold. Dr. Ramsey, during the time that he was unable to preach, before his death, wrote and arranged these chapters for the press. The Preface is dated November 2d. On the 26th of January he died.

Dr. Ramsey believed firmly in the Personal Reign of our Lord at Jerusalem, and in the views commonly called Millenarian. This work is devoted to their inculcation. Though we cannot agree with his views, we can sympathize with his earnestness and faith, and with his constant devotion to his work as a minister, and his faithful labors for the salvation of men.

IX. The Protestant Theological and Ecclesiastical Encyclopædia. Translated from Herzog's Real Encyclopædia by Dr. Bomberger and others. Part VI. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston. 1858. Part VI extends from "Charles V" to "Confession." The reader must be on his guard, as to somewhat that is Germanic and fanciful in this work, but if he will sift carefully, he will find it full of valuable information.

X. The Plenary Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. By Eleazer Lord. New York: M. W. Dodd. Philadelphia, for sale at the Presbyterian Book Store. 1857. pp. 312.

The view of Mr. Lord is, "that words intelligibly and legitimately used, necessarily and perfectly signify and express the thoughts conceived in them: and it is therefore argued, that the inspiration of the Divine thoughts into the minds of the sacred writers, necessarily comprised the inspiration of the words by which they were rendered intelligently conscious of the thoughts conveyed, and which they wrote as they conceived them." In short, it is the theory of verbal inspiration. Mr. Lord boldly meets the objection in regard to the varying styles of the writers, by supposing that the Almighty

inspired the words to each one according to his character, amount of instruction, &c., a theory which resembles the notion that fossils were created just as they are.

XI. A Liturgy: or, Order of Christian Worship. Prepared and published by the Direction and for the Use of the German Reformed Church in the United States of America. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston. 1858. pp. 340. With a Selection of Hymns added. We are gratified to be able to state that this is only a Provisional Liturgy, not yet adopted by the German Reformed Synod. We trust that it may never be adopted without thorough changes. Thus in Baptism:

"We yield thee hearty thanks, most merciful Father, that it has pleased thee, through the mystery of thy Holy Baptism, to deliver this child from the power of darkness, and to translate him into the kingdom of thy dear Son."

The Episcopal Recorder very properly raises the question, whether the following is "rhetorical flourish," or prayer to the dead. It is in the service for "Consecrating a burial ground :"

"Rest here in hope, ye who fall asleep in Jesus. Rest till the welcome voice of Invitation shall break your slumber, and sound aloud through your silent mansions: Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust."

XII. Lectures on the History of Ancient Philosophy. By William Archer Butler, M.A., late Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Dublin. Edited from the Author's MSS. with notes by William Hepworth Thompson, M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, and Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge. Two volumes. pp. 436, 415. Philadelphia. Parry & McMillan. 1857.

Professor Butler was the first occupant of the chair of Moral Philosophy in Trinity College, Dublin. This distinction was conferred upon him before he completed his twenty-sixth year. His design of writing a complete history of philosophy was never realized.

We copy the editor's high eulogy upon the lectures on Plato and the Platonists, the most important portion of the volume. “They are,” he says, unquestionably, as the author informs us, "the result of patient and conscientious examination of the original documents;' and they may be consi dered as a perfectly independent contribution to our knowledge of the great master of Grecian wisdom. Of the Dialectics and Physics of Plato they are the only exposition, at once accurate and popular, with which I am acquainted."