1848.] Notices of Recent Publications. 143 NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS. The Great Atonement. By HENRY SOLLY, Author of "Walter Bernard," and "The Midnight Cry." London: John Chapman. 1847. 12mo. pp. 164. THIS little volume vindicates and turns to practical use the true Christian interpretation of one of the sublimest doctrines of the New Testament. The doctrine of Reconciliation is made by the author to be as engaging and of as serious moment to our minds as the doctrine of Atonement, in the Calvinistic sense of it, is to its believers. Mr. Solly presents no new view, but he gives distinctness and interest to a view which has been repeatedly presented with great force. He maintains, with all arguments of reason and Scripture on his side, that the doctrine of Atonement has become as much perverted from its original meaning in Christendom as has the etymology of the word itself. In an Appendix, he adduces sufficient proof that the word Atonement meant, at the time our version of the Scriptures was made, simply at-one-ment, or reconciliation. In the body of his book, after developing this true scheme of Atonement, he traces its processes through Faith, Sorrow, Love, and Joy. We hope that some one of our publishers may reprint this book, for it is a valuable contribution, as well to our controversial, as to our practical religious literature. E. Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie. By HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. Fifth Edition. Boston W. D. Ticknor & Co. 1848. 16mo. pp. 163. : PROFESSOR Longfellow's new poem has already, within the brief space of two months, reached a fifth edition, a fact which indicates a greater degree of popularity, we believe, than has been attained by any other American poem. This is to be as cribed partly to his great success in overcoming those difficulties of the inexorable hexameter" which have proved insuperable to every other English or American writer who has attempted to compose a long poem in this measure, and partly to the intrinsic beauty of the work itself. The story of Evangeline is marked by great simplicity and a strict accordance with the historical facts, as recorded in Haliburton's "Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia," and in the early French writers; but the chief interest which the reader feels arises from the admirable delineation of the several characters, the minute and truthful de scriptions of rural life and natural scenery, and the rare beauty of the similes. The characters are drawn with a vigorous, but delicate touch, so that even the great master, "that left half told The story of Cambuscan bold," could hardly improve upon the sketch of Basil, the blacksmith, of René, the notary public, or of Benedict, Evangeline's father; while the heroine is scarcely inferior to any character that we remember to have met with in imaginative literature. She presents a perfect example of a loving, trusting, hoping, patient, suffering woman. The pictures of pastoral life are as minute as Crabbe's descriptions, and far more poetical. The first part of the poem describes the condition of the early French settlers of the village of Grand-Pré, and their most unjustifiable removal by the New England troops, after the total destruction of their homes. The second part, which contains the account of Evangeline's wanderings in search of her lost lover, wrought out of the poet's own imagination, will, we suppose, be generally regarded as the most beautiful. It is, indeed, full of admirable conceptions, and is superior, we think, to any thing that Mr. Longfellow has before written. S. New Artist Life, or Sketches of American Painters. By HENRY T. HERE are lively and interesting notices of some of our native artists. To describe their character in a word, we should say that they are remarkably accurate. In every instance, we clearly discern the very man whom the writer aims to exhibit. Faithful likenesses are presented, we see at once the peculiarities of each individual's genius and actual life. No friend of Sully could fail to recognize, in the few pages devoted to him, a complete portrait of one whose cheerful presence and happy artistic gifts won upon all hearts that came within the circle of his influence. The criticisms are always discriminating, but, to our mind, not sufficiently enthusiastic. When a writer who loves and appreci ates art passes from West and Trumbull to Allston, we expect to see new fires kindled by the new atmosphere which he breathes. Still the book possesses a quite substantial merit. It preserves the lineaments of a number of our best artists, some of whom are destined to exert no small influence in shaping the destinies of the New World. C. 1848.] Notices of Recent Publications. 145 A Reply to Doctor Milner's "End of Religious Controversy," so far as the Churches of the English Communion are concerned. By SAMUEL FARMAR JARVIS, D. D., LL. D., Historiographer of the Church, etc. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1847. 12mo. pp. 251. THIS Volume shows no inconsiderable learning and acuteness. As proof of the candor and honesty of the writer, we may mention the fact, that he denies the genuineness of 1 John v. 7, and presents a good summary of the evidence against it. We commend the book to the attention of those who have ever read Milner's "End of Religious Controversy," pronounced by Charles Butler the ablest work in defence of the Roman Catholic Church in the controversy with Protestants, which had appeared in the English language. L. The American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge, for the Year 1848. Boston: J. Munroe & Co. 12mo. 370. pp. The Unitarian Congregational Register, for the Year 1848. Boston Crosby & Nichols. 1848. 12mo. pp. 70. It is impossible to give, in a short notice, any idea of the great amount of information to be derived from the American Almanac, well vindicating its title to be called a "Repository of Useful Knowledge." The past numbers have abundantly established its character as a 66 trustworthy manual of reference." On several subjects, the present volume is more full and complete than its predecessors. Among the articles of interest and value, we may mention those on the Observatory at Washington and the great Telescope at Cambridge, an abstract of the laws of the several States concerning Imprisonment for Debt, the chapters on the Patent-Office, on the history of the Electric Telegraph, and on Railroads. The meteorological tables embrace, besides the usual matter, the "flowering seasons," and "days and depth of snow, for a series of years, in several places." We are grateful alike for some of the additions and some of the omissions in the "Unitarian Congregational Register." The compiler has done well to insert the term "Congregational" in the title, the Unitarians belonging to the great body of Congregational Christians, the attempts sometimes made to deprive them of the name notwithstanding. The Register contains many valuable statistics of the denomination, and at the close, in a series of extracts, some exposition of its doctrines. We think the present a decided improvement upon the similar publications of the two preceding years. VOL. XLIV. - 4TH S. VOL. IX. NO. I. 13 L. Titus Livius: Selections from the First Five Books, together with the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Books entire; chiefly from the Text of Alschefski. 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: D. Appleton & Co. 1847. 12mo. pp. 329. To the teachers and lovers of classical literature, as well as to those of the rising generation who are destined to cultivate an acquaintance with the Latin language and authors, we think Professor Lincoln has rendered an acceptable service. Some thirty years ago, and until a much later period, a volume containing the first five Books of Livy, without note or comment, was the first Latin classic put into the hands of the student after entering college. Provided with an abridgment of Ainsworth, Adam's Latin Grammar, and a translation, if he could get it, though this was a thing not of easy acquisition, he commenced his labors upon the author who held him longest and on whom the greatest amount of diligent, profitable study was bestowed. Mr. Folsom's publication afforded some relief in this state of need, but, as intimated in the preface of the present volume, it lacks that copious provision of notes which is believed to be necessary to supply the wants of the student. Professor Lincoln's notes are probably the result of difficulties gradually and successively observed, mastered, and noted down, as occasions presented them in the course of his instruction; in which work, as well as in settling the text, he has been assisted materially, no doubt, by the recent edition of the "distinguished European scholar" (Alschefski) to whom he refers. He acknowledges his indebtedness to many other restorers and expositors of Livy of high credit. His map, showing the route of Hannibal over the Alps, and another exhibiting a plan of ancient Rome, we conceive to be valuable helps, for which the student will thank him. The notes possess one admirable characteristic in their brevity. Of all the obstacles which have served to paralyze the interest of the student and to obstruct the progress of classical knowledge, we think those interminable pages of rubbish and stupidity with which critics and commentators have loaded the text they have undertaken to explain are the most lamentable. Classical learning will never have a true existence till critics, editors, and lexicographers can, in a few clear, intelligible, vernacular words, tell us what little their labors have brought to light. If they have found out any thing worth knowing, they can communicate it without what the aborigines call "a long talk." Every intelligent reader knows what a clog it is to his progress in attaining the sense or preserving the interest of his author, to be incessantly bothered 1848.] Notices of Recent Publications. 147 with references to the bottom of the page or the end of the book, when both text and notes are in his own tongue. The most desirrable editions of Shakspeare we conceive to be those recent ones, in which, in the majority of cases, a single word gives us all the light we want. Who, then, will wade through an endless jargon of Latin annotations, for modern Latin deserves no better desig nation, to get what information five words or lines of modern English, French, or German might communicate? It is worse than searching two bushels of chaff to find two grains of wheat. Gray's Latin morceaux have been much admired, but only as imitations of Horace and Lucretius, as specimens of the ingenuity and taste of an accomplished man of letters. Few will regret that his "Ars Cogitandi" was left unfinished. Buchanan's version of the Psalms, executed with Horatian felicity, is a tedious book to read. Why attempt to resuscitate a dead language? Have we not a whole Babel of spoken and written tongues, with their respective literatures, now? Even the classics themselves are valuable chiefly as relics of what was once, in ages of a far remote antiquity, the intellectual and literary life of their times, times connected with succeeding periods down to our own, and casting back a faint glimmer of light into times earlier still and illuminated only by the uncertain rays of tradition and fable. F. Practical Physiology; for the Use of Schools and Families. By EDWARD JARVIS, M. D. Philadelphia: Thomas, Cowperthwaite, & Co. 1847. 1847. 12mo. pp. 368. THIS work deserves, and will undoubtedly obtain, a high rank in that class of productions among which it is the author's intention that it shall be placed. It is a hand-book of physiology, and compliance, from youth to age, with its instructions will tend to guide us healthily and happily through life, enabling us to avoid many of the rough paths and painful incidents which we are too apt to consider as inseparable from our earthly pilgrimage. With some of the most important precepts which this science inculcates, all who are capable of understanding them should be perfectly familiar; for without such knowledge we are as unfit to take proper care of ourselves, or of others, as we were before our release from the nursery. If instruction of the kind given in this book were more widely diffused, and made to hold a more prominent place in early education, many an hour of suffering and much sickness would be prevented. That these evils are often unnecessary, and are the penalties we pay for our ignorance on this important subject, is a fact on which we cannot too strongly insist. A treatise like the present must comprehend a certain |