must conform; and, secondly, a tendency, equally spontaneous and unaccounted for, towards the prodigious complication of structure, which we find in the higher forms of organization. Let us take a single example. Professor Tyndall, in his recent lectures on Sound, after describing the curious structure of the ear, so well known in our popular anatomies and natural theologies, mentions the recent discovery of what he describes as a "lute" of three thousand strings, an apparatus of inconceivable delicacy, afloat in the watery substance of the inner ear, and designed, apparently, to convey to the nerve the varieties of pitch in sound. Certainly no one will pretend that any conceivable law of "natural selection" or advantage in the struggle of existence, can help us to imagine, much less account for, the process by which this amazing instrument was devised, and put where it was wanted. Not that "faith" can account for it, either; but "faith" distinctly challenges and denies any assertion which seems to imply, that it could have come about without a conscious purpose somewhere, and a plastic skill, or that we have no right to say it was meant to be so. If science ever seems to make that assertion, science itself refutes it by its constant discovery of facts, exhibiting higher and higher degrees of that shaping intelligence, which, without any thought of conceiving or comprehending it, we ascribe to God. We have followed the line of thought, not of illustration, of the book before us. Its interest to the intelligent reader will be not any special profundity of argument or novelty of view, to which it makes no pretension; but that it attempts to state the familiar argument from design, as distinct from that of final causes, which it does not attempt, under the conditions demanded by the present state of science. One chapter, that on the power of flight in birds, we have already spoken of. Another, equally curious and beautiful, reasons against the limitations of the Darwinian theory, from the facts gathered respecting the very interesting group of hummingbirds. Of these exquisite creatures, four hundred and thirty species have been registered and described, - each, so far as the habits of the bird are concerned, as distinct from every other as goats and sheep; while the whole group is confined to the single continent of America. Between some of them the difference is so slight as a crimson tuft, perhaps, instead of one blue or green; yet, with these delicate boundaries, there is no crossing of breed, or confusion of species. The facts, which are set forth with some fulness, are employed by the author, first, to show that delight in beauty and variety of color (which can have no supposable advantage in the struggle for existence) is as much a purpose in creation as mere utility of function ; and, secondly, to show how far he accepts the theory in question, — since he holds, not that each species of humming-bird is an independent creation, but that they are intentional modifications of the original type, hatched in the ordinary way, under special conditions, and thenceforth separate and distinct. Scientifically, the thought is a little confused; but here, where we are all out of our depth, poetry is perhaps as true as science, and a good deal more attractive. Even if we have to invent a génie or fairy of the humming-birds, commissioned to indulge its loveliest dreams or its queerest fancy in those quaint, mobile forms, it is, after all, no wilder untruth than the idol which some have made of that bleak abstraction," the Unknowable." The "Force, on which all things depend," — if we undertake to sum up a little part of what that phrase implies, must include not less, but rather more, than what our arguments for natural theism have implied, in speaking of the Wisdom, the Skill, the Forethought, the living Providence, the intelligent Purpose, the sovereign Will, of God. - J. H. A. HISTORY AND POLITICS. THE Addresses and Speeches included in Mr. Winthrop's volume* are arranged chronologically, and without reference to the subjects of which they treat; but for our present purpose they may be classified under two distinct heads,—the first comprising the political speeches; and the second, and much the larger division, consisting of commemorative and miscellaneous addresses. Of the speeches under the first head, we do not propose to speak in detail. Many of the questions discussed in them have ceased to be of practical interest, while they are still of too recent importance to be calmly considered now. It is enough to observe, that they are uniformly characterized by boldness, frankness, and courtesy, and by an unfaltering love of country. However much any one may have differed with Mr. Winthrop, no honest opponent can fail to bear witness to the ability and dignity with which he advocated the views he had deliberately adopted and firmly held, and to the spotless purity of his motives. To the consideration * Addresses and Speeches on Various Occasions, from 1852 to 1867. By ROBERT C. WINTHROP. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1867. 8vo, pp. xiii, 725. of every question he brought a ripe and various scholarship; his arguments are clearly and strongly stated; the style is smooth, compact, and polished; and nowhere is there a better presentation of the doctrines and policy of the political party of which he was so distinguished an ornament. As illustrations of one phase of our recent political history, they must possess a permanent interest and value not easily exaggerated. Turning now from the political discussions, which cover, indeed, only a hundred and fifty pages of Mr. Winthrop's volume, to the more attractive field of literary endeavor, it is impossible not to be struck by the variety and interest of the topics embraced in the remaining pages. The obligations and responsibilities of educated men; the precious memory of the founders of New England, of the fathers of the Revolution, and of the historians and scholars who, in our own time, have illustrated and adorned American literature; the needs and prospects of American agriculture; the history of music in New England; the necessity of a more systematic organization of our local charities; the claims of the citizen soldier in a period of civil strife; the importance of the religious instruction of the young, and of a wider circulation of religious books; the various relations of luxury and the fine arts; and the worth of Christianity as a remedy for social and political evils, these, and such as these, are the themes which he has touched only to elucidate and embellish. Many of the addresses, it is true, are extremely brief, covering not more than five or six printed pages, and presenting only a single aspect of the subject to which they relate; but all are suggestive, and several are careful, elaborate, and well-nigh exhaustive discussions. In dealing with subjects so various and so dissimilar as these, Mr. Winthrop exhibits in a high degree the versatility of power, the ready command of his resources, and the aptness of illustration, which might naturally have been anticipated as the fruit of his long and brilliant career in our State Legislature and in Congress. Joined with these are a ripeness of scholarship and a familiarity with general literature too seldom exhibited in this country by the successful statesman or politician. While there is never any thing like a pedantic display, we everywhere find the rich traces of early and later study of the Greek and Roman classics, of a wide acquaintance with English literature, and of careful research in our own annals, and among our own early writers as well as their more distinguished successors. Even the shorter speeches are productions of more than ordinary ability; and are marked by good taste, simplicity, and directness, and by a just appreciation of the special demands of time and place. Perhaps the most striking and eloquent piece in the collection is the address delivered at the inauguration of the statue of Franklin in Boston, on the 17th of September, 1856. On more than one previous occasion, Mr. Winthrop had spoken, in terms of warm eulogy, of the character and services of "the Great Bostonian;" and it is to a suggestion in his lecture on Archimedes and Franklin, before the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, in November, 1853, that the city of Boston is indebted for the fine statue of Franklin now in front of the City Hall. The inauguration of this statue was made the occasion of a general tribute to the memory of Franklin, by the citizens and municipal authorities of his birthplace; and Mr. Winthrop was very properly invited to deliver the principal address. The oration which he pronounced in accordance with this request is one of the best productions of its class, and presents a careful and discriminating portraiture of Franklin's character, viewed under the fourfold aspect of a mechanic, a philosopher, a statesman, and an ambassador. With the skill of a consummate artist thoroughly interested in his work, Mr. Winthrop seizes upon the salient events in each period of Franklin's crowded career; and, blending them all in a rapid and harmonious narrative, traces that career from its humble beginning to its conspicuous close, dwelling on those incidents only which are best adapted to illustrate the real greatness of Franklin. As a sketch of his life and character, there is nothing, so far as we know, within the same number of pages, which can be compared with it for brilliancy and power; and, if Mr. Winthrop had done nothing else, this address would be enough to establish his place among our most accomplished orators. It is a more durable monument than the most skilfully fashioned bronze, and is alike heuorable to the orator and to the subject of his ealogy. Next in interest and importance to this address we are inclined to put the admirable and scholarly discourse on The Obligations and Responsibilities of Educated Men in the use of the Tongue and of the Pen." delivered before the X'umul of Harvard College, in 1852. In this discourse M-. Winthrop justly maintains, that, when false sentiments and mischievous notions prevail on any subject," it is the educated men in de commonly who “in their various avocations and professions, are mainly responsible for their existence. They are responsible for what they say, and for what they leave unsaid; for opinions which they take part in establishing, and for opinions which they take no part in overthrowing." In proceeding to illustrate and enforce this thesis, he pauses for a moment to consider what an immense increase of power the spoken and the written word have gained by modern inventions and modern institutions, when compared with the limited "means which the ancients enjoyed for instructing, controlling, and marshalling" public opinion; and, after speaking at length of the added responsibilities which these changes impose on the educated men of the present age, closes with an earnest appeal to his hearers to do something to advance the interests and extend the reputation of the college to which they owed so much. 66 Scarcely inferior in ability to this address, and characterized by the same high tone, is the address before the Young Men's Christian Association of Boston, April 7th, 1859, entitled "Christianity, neither sectarian nor sectional, the great Remedy for Social and Political Evils." Written in the interest of no sect or denomination, it sets forth, in strong, clear, and manly terms, the need of more true Christian spirit, principle, and motive in all the various affairs, transactions, and enterprises of the world we live in," in religion, morals, business, politics, and the various social amusements. On all these points, Mr. Winthrop speaks wisely and well, and with the impressiveness of thorough conviction. Similar in its general tone and character, and equally deserving of high praise, is the address on "Luxury and the Fine Arts, in some of their Moral and Historical Relations," first delivered in Baltimore, in May, 1859, before the Young Men's Christian Association, and afterward repeated in Boston, in aid of a fund for the erection of an equestrian statue of Washington. It is a rather discursive, but striking and eloquent, discussion of the effects of luxurious tastes and habits on the individual and the community; closing with an exhaustive consideration of the question, "Whether our own land and our own condition of society do not afford ample opportunity for the enjoyment and encouragement of the fine arts, without danger to liberty, and without just liability to the charge of furthering and fostering a pernicious and poisonous luxury?" Of the remaining addresses, perhaps the best is the interesting his |