From the title page, as here quoted, we learn that the author is a Reverend, and a Master of Arts, two pieces of information which he seems to have thought it important to communicate to the world. The book is handsomely printed, much to the publisher's credit; and the poems look readable, but as we have not read them we dare not hazard a conjecture as to their merits. The public would not have us speak of that whereof we are ignorant.

ED.

The Good House-Keeper, or The Way to Live Well, and to be Well while we Live. Containing Directions for Choosing and Preparing Food, in regard to Health, Economy, and Taste. By Mrs. S. J. HALE. Second Edition. Boston: Weeks, Jordan & Co. 1839. 12mo. pp. 144. Mrs. Hale's name as author is a sufficient guaranty, that this will be found to be a good book, and we therefore commend it to all who are, or would be, or would have good house-keepers.

ED.

Traditions of Palestine. By HARRIET MARTINEAU. Boston: William Crosby & Co. 1839.- We are glad to see this book reprinted with its original title, and as it came from the hands of the author. To our taste, it is decidedly the best thing Miss Martineau ever wrote. We always delight to think of her as the author of the Traditions of Palestine.

ED.

The Analyst; A Collection of Miscellaneous Papers. New-York: Benjamin G. Trevett. 12mo. pp. 174.

Woman's Mission. Boston: William Crosby & Co. 1840. 16mo. pp. 156.

White Slavery; A New Emancipation Cause, presented to the People of the United States. By the Author of "The District School As it Was." Worcester: M. D. Phillips. Boston: C. C. Little & Co., and B. B. Mussey. 1839. 16mo. pp. 199.

1. Life of Christopher Columbus. Boston: B. H. Greene. 1840. 16mo. pp. 233. 2. The Lives of Hernando Cortes and Francisco Pizarro. Boston: B. H. Greene. 1840. 16mo. pp. 194.

Voices of the Night. By H. W. LONGFELLOW. Cambridge: John Owen. 1839. 16mo. pp. 159.

An Historical Discourse, delivered at the Celebration of the Second Centennial Anniversary of the First Baptist Church in Providence, Nov. 7, 1839. By WILLIAM HAGUE, Pastor of the Church. Providence: Cranston & Co. Boston: Gould, Kendall & Lincoln. 1839. 12mo. pp. 192.

The Last Days of the Savior, or History of the Lord's Passion. From the German of Olshausen. Mors Christi, Vita Mundi. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1839. 16mo. pp. 248.

THE

BOSTON QUARTERLY REVIEW.

JULY, 1840.

ART. I. Two ARTICLES from the Princeton Review, concerning the Transcendental Philosophy of the Germans, and of Cousin, and its Influence on Opinion in this country. Cambridge: John Owen. 1840. 8vo. pp. 100.

UNDER ordinary circumstances, this pamphlet, a mere reprint of a couple of articles, which appeared some months since in the Princeton Review, would scarcely claim our notice; but as it is put forth under the sanction of a theologian and scholar of considerable eminence in his way, and in connexion with an important controversy, which has been going on for some time in our neighborhood, we have thought that we could not, in justice to ourselves or our friends, suffer it to pass silently into oblivion.

No tolerable observer of the signs of the times can have failed to perceive that we are, in this vicinity at least, in the midst of a very important revolution; a revolution, which extends to every department of thought, and threatens to change ultimately the whole moral aspect of our society. Everything is loosened from its old fastenings, and is floating no one can tell exactly whither. The revolution-or movement, if the term be preferred,― has already extended too far to be arrested, and is so radical in its nature, that

none who take the least interest in the general condition of their race, can regard it with indifference.

It was not to be expected that all would look upon this movement from the same point of view, or with the same feelings. In reference to this, as to all other important movements, the community is naturally divided into the party of the Hopeful, and that of the Fearful. They who have felt the insufficiency of the old systems, creeds, and institutions to satisfy their moral, religious, intellectual, and social wants, who feel the impulse of this new movement, and labor for its furtherance, must hail it with joy, and contemplate its progress with thanksgiving; but they who are satisfied with the old order of things, who regard all change as necessarily a departure from truth and holiness, must needs behold it with alarm, and unaffected grief.

All change carries along with it something saddening and fearful. In a world where so much is mutable and fleeting, nothing is more earnestly craved than that which shall not change nor pass away. We would have something which shall be to us to-morrow what it is to-day. Ever is to-day severing some link which connected us with yesterday, and ever are we compelled to feel that we are carried further and further from all that we have been. Earnestly, then, and often with hearts torn and bleeding, do we look around for something which will not desert us, which will not fade away with every autumn leaf, but abide with us, bind into one unbroken whole, youth, manhood, and old age, and maintain its identity amid all the mutations to which life is subject.

Unable to find this something, this the unchanging and the permanent, in our feelings, in our outward circumstances, or in the ordinary affairs of the world, we generally seek it in our opinions, and more especially in our religious opinions. When we change our faith, we feel that the tie which connects what we are with what we have been is broken, and that instead of recalling with pleasure the past, with its multitude of

associations, mellowed and endeared by time and distance, as something pertaining to ourselves, we must recall it as something which belongs to another. Instead of solacing ourselves with it, we must disown it, and strive to forget it. But so long as we can say that we believe to-day as we did yesterday, that we have retained in old age the faith of our childhood, we feel that we have not lost our identity; that we are they to whom belongs what we remember; and we can but secretly applaud ourselves, that while all around. us has been moving and passing away, we have remained firm, and that while all things have ceased to be what they were, we have ever continued the same.

Then, again, the opinions we have embraced, the faith we have cherished, the convictions we have arrived at, it may be through toil and suffering, are to us the truth, and we cannot regard departure from them in any other light than departure from truth itself. These new opinions which are broached, these new speculations, which the rash and inexperienced are indulging, what are they? whither do they tend? We see them but dimly, and only through the medium of our own preëstablished systems. We see them not as a whole, as they exist in the minds of those who put them forth. We catch only some partial glimpses of them. We collect only a few shreds of the new systems, which we compare with our own, and finding they do not match, we must needs pronounce them useless, or worse. The new cloth sewed on to our old garments adds nothing to their beauty, but takes from it. Why, then, not be contented with the old garments, we so long have worn? We are accustomed

to them; they are fitted to our shape, or our shape is fitted to them, and they put us to no inconvenience. In them we feel at home, and can move about at our ease. It is not difficult, then, to understand why any important movement in any department of thought must be opposed by a considerable number of even able and good men, who, instead of welcoming it as a minister of grace, must denounce it with bitter imprecations as an angel of darkness.

Thus much we have thought it not improper to say, in defence of those who oppose themselves to the new movement, who look upon it with distrust, and labor with all zeal and diligence to stay its progress. There is nothing unnatural in their conduct, or that should lead the friends of progress to suspect them of any want of a tender regard for mankind, or of a sincere love of truth. They feel that if the movement be not arrested, it will break them loose from their old moorings, and sweep away all that they have hitherto cherished as true and sacred; that all their past labors may be rendered of no avail; and that now, when the fire of youth has ceased to burn, when the vigor of manhood is abated, and they would repose their wearied and exhausted spirits for the rest of their lives, they must renew the struggle, the painful toil of clearing up doubt, and fixing the basis of faith. Really, he must be wanting in the common sympathies of our nature, who is not touched with their condition, and who does not readily pardon their querulousness, and even their bitter denunciations.

Among those who have taken the most decided stand against this new movement, no man is in this neighborhood more conspicuous than Mr. Andrews Norton, under whose auspices the pamphlet before us has been put forth. We have no personal acquaintance with Mr. Norton, but we have heard him spoken of as a scholar of enviable attainments, and as a theologian with few equals, in this or any other country. He was formerly a professor in the Cambridge Theological School, and was, we believe, distinguished for his ultra rationalism. He gained some notoriety several years ago by some papers in the Christian Examiner, the organ of the Unitarian public, in review of Professor Stuart's Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, in which he displayed considerable philological ability. In 1833, he put forth a Statement of Reasons for not believing the Doctrines commonly reputed Orthodox, in which he pared the Christian faith down to the smallest conceivable point, and in the opinion