is easy and delightful to go along with him. And he does not deal with shadows and vain images or caricatures of men and women, but with persons who have a will and a way and a life of their own; and his manner of putting what they have to do and say is bright, natural, and impressive.

He believes in physical and moral manliness, in broad shoulders and big limbs apt to all active sports, and in breadth of mind and bigness of heart. At times we suspect in him a tang of that English coarseness of flesh and dulness of wit which put size and strength before fineness, and, being ignorant of the charm and power which lie in the delicate make, the ideal temper, the spiritual endowment, are unjust to them. Muscle is not the great gift of God, and there are higher attainments of manhood than bluff, simple speech, plain manners, honest dealing, and straightforward conduct. But, on the whole, we find him valuing strength most when it is joined with tenderness, and claiming that manliness should be allied with godliness, and always emphasizing the old and necessary connection of gentleman with Christian. He gives us, in this new story, a thoroughly healthy book. And this is no small praise, when all unhealth and vileness, and the mere courting a sensation, characterize so many of the new novels in their plot, style, conduct, and climax.

The fault we find with "Austin Elliot " is its almost entire lack of artistic form and comeliness. The want of care and intellectual conscience in it is a reproach to the author. Page after page seems written in indecent haste and eagerness, as if to get through a stint of work. It looks like labor far into the night, to get the job off in time for the morning mail. Reading it leaves the same sense of hurry, incoherence, and unshapeliness which hearing a speaker gives, who has a good deal to say, and about half enough time for it all. It was, if we mistake not, written as a serial for a magazine, which may sufficiently explain, but does not excuse, its loose construction, and inartistic, slovenly form.

IF the Sanitary Commission needed recommendation, enough would be given in the wholesome little book just published under its auspices.* It is made up of extracts from letters and reports by gentlemen and ladies who were engaged, officially or as volunteers, in the work of the Commission on board hospital transports, during the Peninsular campaign. And, whether as a record of their individual faithfulness or of the incalculable benefit rendered the nation by the Commission, the book ought to find "abundant entrance" into our loyal homes.

It will serve to fix the conviction that the Sanitary Commission, for the wisdom of its far-seeing plans, the completeness of its machinery, the efficiency of its never-tiring diligence, is the one channel through which loyal giving should run to the never-ending wants of our sick and wounded soldiers. And it will further fix the conviction, daily

*Hospital Transports. A Memoir of the Embarkation of the Sick and Wounded from the Peninsula of Virginia in the Summer of 1862. Compiled and Published at the Request of the Sanitary Commission. Boston: Ticknor and Fields. 1863.

deepening now, of the high morality engaged to the various work of the war. For it is a simple and faithful witness to the spiritual nobility springing out of the war, and still to spring, which is not so much an offset and counterpoise to its proper immoralities and woes, as its striking feature, its peculiar fruit, its prime gift and great blessing to the people out of their sacrifices and pains in it.

This little excerpt from the Commission's records and correspondence proves how interesting the mass of it must be, and how important too. For it is from just such documents by sensible people, who know how to see and how to put down what they see and know, and nothing else, that authentic material is to be drawn, by and by, for the history of these days.

But, apart from any use to be made of the book, or any inference or moral to be drawn from it, it is worth reading from the mere interest of the facts in it, and its various experiences, grave and gay, most solemn and exceedingly funny. Good lessons, too, are to be learned from it. For if all the doings in the world went on with the cheerful temper and in the sensible and thorough way of those hospital transports in charge of the Sanitary Commission, what a saving of time, work, and patience the world would enjoy!

The little volume has its sad side, of course, and, to our mind, a truly deep pathos in the dedication of it to the memory of those among the faithful servants of the Commission, Dr. Robert Ware, Dr. Grymes, and others, who were faithful unto death, and now have heard it said to them, "I was sick and ye came unto me," and do rest from their labors where there is no more death, and no more pain, for the former things are passed away.

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WE gave, a year ago, some account of the plan and details of the first volume of a series the Annual Cyclopædia * — published by the Messrs. Appleton. In general style of execution, that for the past year is similar, but larger, and in several respects even more complete, particularly in having a large number of maps, some of them well finished, illustrating the longest article, that on Army Operations." In extended papers such as that just mentioned, with "Congress" (Confederate and United States), "Navy Operations," "Industrial Exhibition," "Geographical and Archæological Explorations,” “Literature," Obituary," we have a very full and carefully digested history of the year, in its different chapters. We greatly regret, however, that the volume should still be destitute of a summary outline of events of scientific progress, and of the leading statistics of the year, which are given at length only as to American topics. We are also surprised to observe a statement giving so erroneous an impression as the following: :

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"The whole experiment [of plantation industry at Port Royal] finally failed, and was abandoned by order of General Hunter, and the negroes fell upon the government for support.”—p. 756.

*The American Annual Cyclopædia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1862. Vol. II. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. pp. 830.

An assertion refuted in the most positive manner by the latest published reports and statistics of the Educational Commission. In justice to all concerned, we are authorized to make the following statement:

"The larger portion of the plantations are being carried on this year upon government account, by the same persons whom we sent out last year, now under government pay. The prospects of this year's crop are very good."

THE pleasant associations that connect Mr. Burton's name with "The District School as it was," as well as with the effort of these past years to make the District School what it ought to be, bespeak a kindly hearing for his small and modest volume just issued.* We have not been able to give it all the personal examination it deserves; but we have known of the painstaking fidelity with which the writer has labored to bring points of chief moral interest in education before the public, especially the public of parents, and the gratitude with which he has welcomed the slightest tokens of interest and sympathy. We are sure the volume will serve well the purpose for which it is written.

NEW PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Light. By Hellen Modêt. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp.

339.

"

or

The Historical Shakespearian Reader. Comprising the "Histories "Chronicle Plays." Revised, with Notes. By John W. S. Howe. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 502. Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition. York: Sheldon & Co. 2 vols.

Bleak House. New

Hospital Sketches. By L. M. Alcott. Boston: James Redpath. 24mo. pp. 102.

Husband and Wife; or, The Science of Human Development through Inherited Tendencies. New York: Carleton. 18mo. pp. 259.

The Young Parson. Philadelphia: Smith, English, & Co. 18mo. (A story told in a pleasant, off-hand way, creditable to an unpractised writer, but with too marked a vein of satire, and an unpleasant affectation of colloquial dialect.)

The Capital of the Tycoon; a Narrative of a Three Years' Residence in Japan. By Sir Rutherford Alcock. New York: Harper & Brothers. Maps and Illustrations. 12mo. 2 vols. (Reviewed in July.)

The Social Condition and Education of the People in England. By Joseph Kay, M. A., of Trinity College, Cambridge. New York: Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 323. (A careful gathering of testimony and statistics, most painfully illustrating the social effect of the class-power which rules in England.)

The Bivouac and the Battle-field; or, Campaign Sketches in Virginia and Maryland. By George F. Noyes, Captain U. S. Volunteers. New York: Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 339. (A personal narrative, straightforward, plain, and interesting.)

Live it Down. A Story of the Light Lands. By J. C. Jeafferson. New York: Harper & Brothers. (Paper.)

* Helps to Education in the Homes of our Country. By WARRen Burton. Boston: Crosby, Nichols, & Co.

Vie de Jesus. Par ERNEST RENAN. Paris. 1863. 1 vol. 8vo.

Ir is no wonder that this book of M. Renan has met with an immense sale, and caused a wide and fluttering excitement. The sale is due to its wonderful attractiveness as a romance; the excitement, to the extreme, undisguised, we may even say unconscious, audacity of its thought. It is the last word of naturalism in its attempts to describe Jesus; and an age which is profoundly naturalistic, without more than half suspecting it, welcomes the book with a shivering delight, feeling that it is its own word, yet afraid to repeat it. The utterance is not untimely nor unexpected. It could not have been more gently or more musically made.

The Four Gospels may be, and have actually been, dealt with in three ways, each originating a school of criticism, and involving marked results touching the historical character of Jesus. They may be considered as materials for a biography, -as literary productions of the age in which they stand,or as symbolical writings representing, under mythical and poetical forms, the experiences of the human soul. Up to a comparatively recent date the first view was the prevailing one, we may even say it was the only one. By all, save a few obscure persons who were set aside as mystics, the Gospels as they are were received as genuine, authentic, and complete histories of an individual. As histories they were read; as histories they were studied; as histories they were defended. VOL. LXXV. — 5TH S. VOL. XIII. NO. III.

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To fix their dates, to establish their authority, to maintain their integrity, to arrange their chronologies, to harmonize their statements of fact, to make them appear as complements of each other, was the task of all the Protestant generations. What a task it was they know who have turned over the prodigious piles, the full libraries of books, the sight of which is oppressive to the mind. With the Catholics the Gospels were one source of information respecting Jesus; with the Protestants they were the only source, and their whole faith was pledged to maintain their genuineness. There was, strictly speaking, no criticism. Criticism was forbidden, because it threw doubt on the historical character of documents whose historical character was the only one valued. They were Lives of Jesus, - all the Lives of Jesus there were. The work in hand was to get a full and accurate life of Jesus out of them. All contributions were welcomed which served to make firm, clear, and ample the biographical portraitures. All contributions were declined which threatened to impair the distinctness of a line, or to dull the brilliancy of a piece of color. The laws of historical investigation were jealously held at arm's length; the laws of literary judgment were sternly remanded to their place in the department of secular thought. These books were held to be exceptions to all mental productions. In regard to them harmonies were in order, not discussions. Other books might be examined with a view to the discovery of their constituent elements, and the separation of the genuine from the fictitious, of the false from the true. These could be examined with a view only to the establishment of the complete unity of all their parts, to the reconciliation of discrepancies, and the covering over of defects, - the final purpose being, not to discover precisely who and what Jesus was, but to vindicate as historical the person whom Christendom revered.

This school, if it may be so called, was substantially destroyed by the Rationalists, at the head of whom the popular opinion places Strauss. It was succeeded in the order of thought, and also in the order of time, by the school of literary criticism which was instituted and conducted by Baur. This school dealt with the Gospels simply as the literary produc