Mr. Muzzey speaks of consciousness as a principle of evidence. This seems to us hardly correct. Consciousness is not a faculty, nor a principle, but simply the ME recognising itself as the subject of its own phenomena. We perceive always, but are not always conscious of the fact. When our perceptions are so vivid and distinct, that we recognise ourselves as their subject, we are conscious. Consciousness is nothing but a higher degree of the ordinary power of perception.

The Connexion between Taste and Morals: Two Lectures. By MARK HOPKINS, D. D., President of Williams College. Second Edition. Boston: Tappan & Dennet. 1842. 8vo. pp. 63.- Anything from Dr. Hopkins, a man of acknowledged abilities, will always command our respectful consideration; but we confess that these Lectures, although they have reached a second edition, have failed to meet our expectation. We have read them with care; turned them over and viewed them in every possible light, but have been wholly unable to discover anything in them beyond commonplace. They are a couple of very respectable sermons, a little prosy, a little dull, as is not unfrequently the case with sermons, but nevertheless very respectable as sermons. As philosophical lectures on the great subject of the relation of Morals and Taste, or in other words the connexion between the beautiful and the good, they are hardly worthy the distinguished head of one of our literary institutions. Dr. Hopkins can do better, and should, or else not publish his lucubrations.

The Neutral French: or the Exiles of Nova Scotia. By MRS. WILLIAMS. Two volumes in one. Providence: Published by the Author. 1841. 12mo. pp. 238 and 109. — Mrs. Williams has here given us a very interesting tale, and a thrilling narrative of the horrors practised by the English on the French settlers of Acadia or Nova Scotia. We recommend it to the serious attention of all who are laboring to exalt the humanity of the English at the expense of the Americans. We had no conception of the gross wrongs and outrages to which the early French Colony had been subjected, till we read Mrs. Williams's Introduction. We could only say while reading it, thank God, we have not a drop of English blood flowing in our veins; if we had we should blush and hang our head, and never again speak of our glorious ancestors. The English people have many noble traits of character, and we are not conscious of any hostile feeling towards them; but we can conceive of no crime too gross, no barbarism too revolting to be approved by the British government a government, which, as Mr. Jefferson well remarked, never admitted a chapter on morality into its political code.

Mission to England in behalf of the American Colonization Society. By Rev. R. R. GURLEY. Washington Morrison. 1841. 12mo. pp.

264.-We have read this account of his Mission to England, by Mr. Gurley, with a good deal of interest. It contains much matter of great value to the friends of African Colonization. While we express our warmest regard for the objects of the Colonization Society, and our fullest confidence in the sincerity, integrity, and philanthropic zeal of Mr. Gurley, we cannot but dissent from the policy of attempting to enter into negotiations with the British African Civilization Society, and especially of soliciting funds in England for the furtherance of our own philanthropic objects. The conduct of the abolitionists in soliciting aid from England is enough to expose them to the utter condemnation of every patriot and enlightened statesman, and we are sorry to find the Colonization Society, by its own example, sanctioning it even in the remotest degree. We ought to be able to sustain our own philanthropy; and above all should we be careful how we allow England a pretext for interfering even indirectly with our domestic affairs. England cares no more for the negro, than she does for the man in the moon. If she could colonize Western Africa sufficiently to monopolize the trade of the whole coast, she would no doubt like to do it, and have it supposed that she was doing it for the suppression of the slave trade.

Lecture on Civilization, delivered before the Young Men's Association of Saratoga Springs, March 8, 1841. By Hon. SAMUEL YOUNG. Saratoga Springs: For the Association. 1841. 8vo. pp. 40.- Hon. Samuel Young, of the New York State Senate, is one of the ablest men and most enlightened statesmen in the country, and should have served his country long ere this in a more conspicuous sphere, and would have so done, had it not been for an unprincipled Regency that for many years ruled the State of New York. We have been accustomed to reverence him from our boyhood, and were in early life indebted to him for some favors, which he has no remembered, but which we have not forgotten. We like him, for he is one of the very few men who profit by experience, and grow more liberal, as they grow older. We have read his lecture with much pleasure. It is able and eloquent, and though not recognising the great fact of the growth of humanity, successfully vindicates the progressiveness of all civilization, and especially of that to which we belong. We commend it to our readers as liberal, and democratic in the best sense of the term. Mr. Young goes for the largest liberty, and for the elevation of the mass. His Lecture may be obtained at the principal bookstores in New York, Albany, Troy, and Schenectady.

Réfutation de l'Eclecticisme où se trouve exposée la vrai définition de la Philosophie, et où l'on explique le sens, la suite, et l'enchainement des divers philosophes depuis Descartes. Par PIERRE LEROUX. Paris: Charles Gosselin. 1839. 16mo. pp. 351. — This is a work directed against the eclectic philosophy of M.M. Cousin and Jouffroy. We do not like the spirit manifested towards Cousin, nor the virulent

personal attacks on him, in which M. Leroux indulges even to excess; but we cannot deny to the work the merit of great ability and uncommon philosophic powers. M. Leroux does not always do justice to M. Cousin, and differs in fact less from him than he fancies; but he is unquestionably the profoundest philosophical writer France can boast. We confess that we have read his work with great pleasure, and not without profit. He is deserving the serious attention of our countrymen, although we would caution them against some of his speculations touching Christianity. He is a profounder and a more vigorous and inspiring writer than Cousin, though less chaste, elegant, and polished.

My progress in Error, and recovery to Truth: or a Tour through Universalism, Unitarianism, and Skepticism. Boston: Gould, Kendall, and Lincoln. 1842. 16mo. pp. 240. This is one of those books which many good people will tolerate for its odor of orthodoxy, but which every enlightened Christian must deplore, as calculated to bring religion and religious people into contempt. It deserves the severest condemnation of every man who really wishes to promote faith in the Gospel. The author, whoever he may be, and we are glad he conceals his name, should be placed under guardians. If he knows no better than he writes, he should be watched lest he fall into the fire; if he does, he should be sent to the house of correction, as a brawler and disturber of the peace.

Seriously, the work is the production of a low-minded bigot, ignorant of the simplest rudiments of the Christian faith, and destitute of every spark of Christian grace. He acknowledges that he has been all his life a hypocrite, dishonest, unworthy of confidence, and he proves that he has by no means been regenerated. He belies Universalism, Unitarianism, and Skepticism, and shows that he knows no more of them than he does of manly feeling and Christian liberality.

We must tell our orthodox friends, that it is not by such books as this, that they will check the progress of heresy and infidelity. There is no form of heresy, or of infidelity, that is not infinitely preferable to the bastard orthodoxy, made up of ignorance, bigotry, and cant, inculcated by this contemptible volume. The true spirit of the Gospel is free, lofty, and catholic, not low, confined, and grovelling. It elevates and expands the soul, warms and vivifies the heart, enlightens and invigorates the mind, making one ever more truly a man, more worthy of himself, his race, and his Maker. Books designed to further the Gospel must be written in its spirit.

There is and can be no greater mistake than the effort to promote a good end by unworthy means. Our orthodox Christians, we are sorry to say, are exceeding prone to fall into this mistake. Their books against infidelity are for the most part unworthy the Christian cause, and rarely answer any other end than that of making bigots or infidels. We cannot call to mind even a respectable work from this class of Christians, that we should be willing to place in

the hands of unbelievers, if we wished their conversion. Their writings against Universalists and Unitarians are no better. They are so confident that they are right, that they never take the pains to ascertain why they are right, or why others are wrong.

Organic Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and Physiology. By JUSTUS LIEBIG, M. D., Ph. D., F. R. S., M. R. I. A., &c., Professor of Chemistry in the University of Giessen. Edited from the Manuscript of the Author, by LYON PLAYFAIR, Ph. D. Second American Edition. With an Introduction, Notes, and Appendix, by JOHN W. WEBSTER, M. D., Professor of Chemistry in Harvard University. Cambridge: John Owen. 1841. 12mo. pp. 424. We are glad to learn that this work has already reached a second edition. In general we have no very high opinion of the works written for the purpose of applying science to agriculture, especially those written abroad. They are not adapted to the state of agriculture in our country, and in general it requires an outlay of capital to follow their directions, which very few of our farmers can command. But this is a work of genuine science, profound, yet simple, and may be studied with great advantage by our agricultural community.

Words in a Sunday School. Boston: Benjamin H. Greene. 1842. 18mo. pp. 194. This makes No. V. of the Sunday School Library, now in course of publication, by Mr. Greene. It is a volume of more than ordinary merit, full of rich thought, of pure, pious, and philanthropic feeling, often expressed with much force and delicacy. It is not often that we find in a Sunday School library a work of so much real merit. Its author, we are told, is a Sunday School teacher, a young lady of a most estimable character, and we think we can promise her, if she perseveres, a literary career, which will be honorable to her, and useful to her countrymen.

THE

BOSTON QUARTERLY REVIEW.

APRIL, 1842.

ART. I. Charles Elwood: or the Infidel Converted. By O. A. BROWNSON. Boston Charles C. Little and James Brown. 1840. 16mo. pp. 262.

THIS small volume, written for the most part in 1834, though not published till a couple of years since, was by no means designed to offer an elaborate defence of the Christian religion, far less a complete system of theological doctrines. Its purpose was to state with tolerable clearness, and with a little more than ordinary philosophic precision, the leading questions between believers and unbelievers; to show the unsatisfactory character of the answers usually given to those questions; and to indicate with some distinctness a better method of treating them. It is properly a Discourse on the method of handling the matters in issue between believers and unbelievers, with only such applications of it as were necessary to make it intelligible, and to establish its justness and sufficiency.

It is but justice to the author, to say that he never for one moment considered, that the book of itself would be sufficient to convert an unbeliever to the Christian faith; nor that viewed either as a simple argument, or as an exposition of a system of doctrines, it left nothing to be desired. His own painful expe