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NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

Christian Views: or Discourses, Doctrinal, Practical, and Devotional; designed for the Candid, Serious Consideration of all Denominations of Christians. By the Author of the Christian Layman. Boston: Crosby & Nichols. 1848. 12mo. pp. 300.

THE "Christian Layman" referred to in this title has had a considerable circulation, and been well received by the class of readers for which it was written. The present volume contains twenty discourses on various subjects of a doctrinal and practical character. The author professes to have written them, not for the learned or the theologian, but for the "common mind,” — for the less highly educated. He does not aim at "studied elegance and beauty of style." His object is "to promote and advance evangelical religion among the generality of the people."

If we had any doubt of the want of plainly written devotional books for circulation amongst people of moderate education, the doubt would be dissipated by actual inspection of their meagre libraries, and by observing the strong attachment manifested by such persons even to very ordinary works which have fallen into their possession. We are liable to underrate the number of individuals and families in small country towns, and in villages and hamlets remote from literary advantages and excitement, who have no relish for, and no means of procuring, such volumes of sermons and other religious publications as are most highly esteemed in our own meridian. They are many, and they must be fed, and fed with such intellectual food as is adapted to their capacity and their taste. Plain food it may be, but it should be none the less wholesome than that which is furnished for more cultivated minds. It is desirable that sound, wise, and pure thoughts should be supplied in a form so humble and a style so inartificial as to make them intelligible and familiar. This our author has endeavoured to accomplish; how successfully, those for whom the book was written are best qualified to decide. The discourses seem to us, so far as we have examined them, to be plain, serious, and practical. Several of them contain discussions of important doctrinal questions, and the writer's theological belief is clearly expressed; but the volume is free from the alloy of sectarian feeling, and breathes a tone of brotherly kindness towards all Christians and all men.

R.

The Library of American Biography. Conducted by JARED SPARKS. Second Series. Vols. XIV. and XV. Boston: Little & Brown. 1847 and 1848. 16mo. pp. 419 and 461.

THE first of these volumes contains a reprint of the Life of the traveller Ledyard, by Mr. Sparks himself. This is certainly worthy of a place in the "Library of American Biography." The other volume the fifteenth, and, we are sorry to say, the last, of the series opens with an account of the life and services of Colonel William Richardson Davis, distinguished in our Revolutionary annals, by Fordyce M. Hubbard. The Life of the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, missionary to the Indians, and father of the late President Kirkland, by Rev. S. K. Lothrop, fills the remaining part of the volume. The name of Kirkland is enshrined in a multitude of hearts, but, independently of any adventitious interest, the present biography will prove attractive from the manner in which it is executed, and valuable for the amount of information it affords relative to a portion of the aborigines of North America, and the efforts made to introduce among them "the arts and influences of Christian civilization." The me moir derives additional worth from the fact, that it is prepared from "original documents," and Mr. Kirkland's "own journals and letters." "The chapter on Indian history," observes Mr. Lothrop towards the close of the narrative," is the darkest and saddest chapter in the annals of this country; and the end is not yet." We wish that the writer would resume and pursue this subject, particularly in its connection with missionary efforts. He must be able to lay his hand on abundance of materials; and while the trains of thought and views, which must have suggested themselves during the preparation of the present memoir, are fresh in his mind, he would find it easy, we think, to furnish something that would not only be read with interest now, but possess a permanent value. We earnestly commend the subject to his attention

L.

A Treatise on the Law of Copyright in Books, Dramatic and Musical Compositions, Letters and other Manuscripts, Engravings and Sculpture, as enacted and administered in England and America; with some Notices of the History of Literary Property. By GEORGE TICKNOR CURTIS, Counsellor at Law. Boston: Little & Brown. 1847. 8vo.

pp. 450.

If any literary man wishes to become interested in law-books, let him begin with the volume before us. Independently of its

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value to members of the legal profession, it will serve a high use as an introduction of the science of the law to scholars and general readers. The circulation of Mr. Curtis's work will doubtless help, with other agencies, to secure for authors the full enjoy. ment of their just claims, which are now but partially protected by all existing laws of copyright. The volume contains a sketch of the history of literary property, and a detail of the provisions of the law in England and the United States, as it applies to letters and other manuscripts, to abridgments, translations, periodicals, dramatic compositions, engravings, and maps, to literary piracy and infraction. An Appendix includes the British and American statutes concerning copyright. In the notes, valuable information and interesting anecdotes are freely afforded, and extracts are given from the famous arguments of Lord Camden and Sergeant Talfourd.

E..

Biographical Notices of some of the most Distinguished Jewish Rabbies, and Translations of Portions of their Commentaries and other Works, with Illustrative Introductions and Notes. By SAMUEL H. TURNER, D. D., Professor of Biblical Learning and Interpretation of Scripture in the Gen. Theol. Sem. of the Prot. Epis. Church. New York: Staniford & Swords. 1847. 12mo. Talmudic Maxims, translated from the Hebrew; together with other Sayings, compiled from various Authors. By L. S. D'ISRAELI, Teacher of Hebrew and German. Boston: J. French. 1848. 12mo. pp. 197.

Pp. 245.

WE think that the title of Dr. Turner's volume professes a little too much. The book, however, is not without value. The biographies, though short, contain, we suppose, the principal facts and incidents which can be gleaned respecting the subjects of them, and the specimens of Rabbinical interpretation given afford means of comparing Jewish with Christian ideas relating to some prophecies generally esteemed Messianic.

The defect of D'Israeli's work is, that the "maxims translated from the Hebrew" are not distinguished from the "other sayings." The former maxims really "Talmudic " would possess an historical interest, and would be read, if not for their intrinsic value, at least as matter of curiosity.

L.

Duties of Young Women. By E. H. CHAPIN. Boston: George W. Briggs. 1848. 16mo. pp. 218.

The Crown of Thorns: a Token for the Sorrowing. By EDWIN H. CHAPIN. Boston: A. Tompkins. 1848. 32mo. pp. 147. VOL. XLIV. -4TH S. VOL. IX. NO. III.

41

THE former of the above-named books contains six valuable "Lectures" on the Position, Culture, Accomplishments, Duty, Influence, and Maternal Relation of Woman. In the latter we have the same number of excellent "Discourses," the topics of which are, The Christian View of Sorrow; Christian Consolation in Loneliness; Resignation; The Mission of Little Children; Our Relations to the Departed; and the Voices of the Dead. We need say nothing more in commendation of these volumes, than that, in respect to thought, they are worthy of their author, and, as to style, are greatly superior to any other productions of his pen which we have seen.

B-t.

The Incarnation. A Letter to Rev. John Fiske, D. D. By WILLIAM B. GREENE. West Brookfield: Published by the Author. Jan. 1848. 12mo. pp. 52.

THIS Letter covers a large field of doctrine and contains much thought, but it is wanting in comprehensiveness and maturity. We cannot say that Mr. Greene's views strike us as altogether new. They seem rather to be the vigorous reproduction in his own mind of familiar, general truths, reclaimed from a somewhat isolated existence, arranged in systematic form, and deduced from certain texts of Scripture used as philosophical for mulas. It is plain truth in the guise of metaphysics.

The theory of the Incarnation contained in the Letter is strictly Unitarian in its practical aspect, but is peculiar as resting on a basis entirely theological. The central thought is, that the life of the individual is sustained by concurrence with the life of other beings; the natural sinful life by concurrence with humanity, the spiritual holy life by concurrence with God. Man is redeemed by holiness, which is assimilation to God. But the energy of sin accumulated from the Fall has so broken the original sympathy between man and God, so obscured man's spiritual perception, that holiness is impossible. To make "the things of the Spirit of God" tangible to an evil race, a Mediator is necessary; and Christ, as this Mediator, "the middle term through whom the perfections of God may descend upon the children of Adam," is the Word, the Divine Wisdom incarnate. His whole life was in concurrence with the Father's; his food was the Father's Will and Truth; he is the ideal humanity; the Image and Fulness of God to the world. Man may now obtain holiness by being transformed into the image of this Mediator, and thus assimilated to God. This transformation is effected by digesting his truth (John vi. 57) and by obeying his example of disinterested love and self-sacrifice.

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In connection with this general view, Mr. Greene holds a theory of the Trinity much resembling that of Coleridge, and a doctrine of the Reconciliation which is easily deduced from his leading principle. The criticisms upon the received doctrine of the Trinity and the Atonement are very trenchant, but not more so than is just.

F.

Immigration into the United States. By JESSE CHICkering.

Boston: Little & Brown. 1848. 8vo.

PP. 94.

Dr. Chickering's essay on the "immigration of foreigners into the United States," their number, and the effect they are likely to produce on the character and institutions of our country, is well worthy of the attention of the public. It embodies a great amount of important statistical information, collected apparently from authentic sources. Several tables, with the necessary explanations, are given, embracing a period of twenty-six years, from October 1, 1820, to September 30, 1846. "The number of foreigners coming" in 1847 he states as "nearly 300,000," that is, "nearly equal to the present natural increase of the whole white population of the United States in 1840."

L.

Der Deutsche Kirchenfreund. Organ für die gemeinsamen Interessen der Americanisch-deutschen Kirchen. Herausgegeben von PHILIPP SCHAFF, Professor der Theologie in Mercersburg, Pa. Jan. 1848. [The Friend of the German Church, Organ of the Common Interests of the American German Churches. Edited by Philip Schaff, Professor of Theology, etc.]

PROFESSOR SCHAFF of Mercersburg, Penn., commenced in January of this year the publication of a religious journal, in the German language, with the title above given. The first number is full of interest, and contains six articles, on the following subjects: 1. The Design of the Publication; 2. German Literature in America; 3. Anselm of Canterbury; 4. "All is Yours"; 5. Brief Review of the Ecclesiastical Events of the Year 1847; 6. The Good Shepherd. The pamphlet derives its interest from the fact of its being mainly the production of a learned German, transplanted from the teeming literary soil of Germany to the United States, where he has lived sufficiently long to have become acquainted with our theology and ecclesiastical affairs.

The article on German Literature in America is able, and for the most part fair and candid. It makes a large, but reasonable, demand on the gratitude of the world for German learning and research. Of German philosophy Professor Schaff entertains a