CHURTON'S LITERARY REGISTER. general and horrible licentiousness, the improvident augmentation of their numbers, the rapid increase of their property, to the ruin of entire districts, the multitude of holidays imposed by the Romish calendar, the tendency both of the popular and of learned literature,-of Rheineke Fuchs and Eulenspiegel, not less than of the works of Reuchlin and Erasmus, all alike combine to sap that respect for Rome, without which no autholiterature was no less efficient in preparing men's minds to admit the Reformed doctrines, than it proved, in after times, in sweeping away all those barriers of opinion that would otherwise have shut out for ever the French Revolution. THE name of Ranke to any work is a sufficient guarantee that it will prove one of infinite labour and research; but it can hardly be said that he meddles at all with the philosophy of history. Here, however, are the facts, given in a most impar-rity can long subsist. Indeed, it is not difficult to see that tial spirit, and translated, to all appearance, with a skill and fidelity that entitle Mrs. Austen to the highest praise. The two volumes are divided into four books. The first of these, with the Introduction, commencing with the Carlolingian times, leads us through a dark, but not uninteresting period, that ends with Maximilian. During the earlier portion of these ages, Rome was completely subordinate to the German Empire. The several princes and states of that unwieldy body assisted their common lord against the Pope, and many even of the ecclesiastics joined them, till about the tenth century, when the feudal potentates, finding the imperial yoke had grown intolerably oppressive, at once changed their policy, and united themselves with Rome against the Emperor. But this was only for a time. Again they shifted their sides, like the partners in a country dance. Pope Alexander the Third, and Frederick the First, met in friendly counsel at Canosa, and the triumph of the Roman Catholic Church was complete. From this time forth the Popes completely got the upper hand; and, by their annates, pallia, and the other manifold dues exacted by the curia, drew a far larger revenue from Germany than even the emperors themselves. The next point of importance in this period to the struggle between the Popes and the Empire for superiority, is the efforts of the Cities, in conjunction with their Emperor, to put down the robber-knights, who held it a part of their aristocratic privilege to plunder the industrious classes of the community. One is a little shocked at first to read of these lordly bandits issuing from their castles and strong-holds, and pillaging the defenceless traveller; but, in truth, we ought not to be so much shocked for the matter: the thing is by no means without a precedent in our own days, only substituting statute-law for club-law,--or faust-recht, as the Germans called it, the right of the strong hand; and of the two modes of emptying a pocket, it may be doubted which is the most effectual. In other respects, if a man is to be robbed of his hard earnings, it cannot make much difference to him whether the spoiler call himself a knight or a tax-gatherer. He refuses to pay cess to the collector, who immediately pays himself by the friendly help of his natural ally, the bailiff; or he declines giving up his goods to the feudal knight, and the latter issues a distress-warrant-not on a bit of greasy parchment, but by means of sword and spear, the distinction being more one of words than of reality. Indeed, we are inclined to think that both Robin Hood and Sir John Falstaff were better philosophers than the world in general gives them credit for being. Luther next appears upon the scene, and his progress is detailed with a fullness, which we should in vain attempt to epitomise. The times now abounded in splendid characters, and important events, any one of which would suffice to engross the attention in a less bustling period. But, in reading these pages, we no longer wonder at the success of the Reformer: the harvest was fully ripe for his sickle; every circumstance of the times concurred in his favour; and what would have been utterly impracticable a few years before, was now comparatively an easy matter. The resolute and sagacious Maximilian was, from political motives, more inclined to defend than oppress him, for he was a bit in the mouth of Popery to curb and restrain when it should grow too rampant; and if the imperial policy changed with the Emperor's grandson, Charles, still Luther had the division of the princes in his favour, to say nothing of popular feelings, and the newlyawakened spirit in Germany, which, commencing with literature, had not only fitted the public mind to receive any novelties, but had awakened an insatiable craving after innovation. In truth, the Reformation, properly so called, was but one manifestation of the spirit of change that possessed every class of society, and which evinced itself fully as much in literature and politics as in religion. The reader who loses sight of this great truth, will have formed but a very imperfect idea of the period, and will be little fitted to study the pages of Ranke. The Third Book brings us to a yet more eventful period, and one pregnant with truths, doubly important to a time like the present, when the old social landmarks are being swept away, and the last remains of the feudal system are tottering to their ruin. That it should be so, we firmly believe, is essential to the best interests of mankind, who, in their constant advance, have attained to a state of mind and morals incompatible with feudal prejudices. But in the acquirement of this great good, there is the same kind and degree of peril that threatened the whole western world on the outbreak of the Reformation, though no one can doubt the inestimable benefits of that crisis, even to the Papacy itself, which was purified and invigorated by the contest. Still the Reformation, however called for by the times' abuses, however beneficial in its results, shook the fabric of society to its very centre. There was a general ferment of the human mind; the Past, with its aged formulas, had no longer a place in men's veneration, nor would the mass, that had been thus excited by the lessons of Luther, rest within the limits he had prescribed; new sects arose, of a furious and uncompromising spirit, men who would risk anything, pull down anything, in their aspirations after some vague and unattainable perfection. Opposite as the times and agents are in every other respect, we yet cannot help seeing in this a striking resemblance to the history of the Girondists, who, however moderate and well-intentioned themselves, did We now come to the Second Book, which contains many historical facts in direct opposition to the claims of Papal supremacy. Ranke reminds us that the word transubstantiation was first current in the time of Peter Lombard, who lived in the twelfth century, and did not receive the sanction of the Church till 1215, when it was first given by the Lateran Confession of Faith. With a masterly hand he then traces the progress of education and of the arts, the influence on society of the various brotherhoods, the division of the Greek and Latin Churches, and shows how miracles and relics were all brought not the less give rise to all the subsequent horrors of the to bear on the one great point of strengthening and extending the influence of the see of Rome. At length the interests of the papacy became too decidedly at variance with the moral and political feelings of a numerous section of the German people; the exemption of the clergy from all imposts, their VOL. I.NO. I. French revolution. Fortunately the result was somewhat different, the evil not being allowed to spread so far, though it still has left a dark and fearful page in history. The news of these tumults was brought to Luther in his safe retreat at the Wartzburg; he did not hesitate a moment, but with the same B courage that had before braved the thunders of the Vatican, he now defied the fury of the people, when strange to say, the tempest was rebuked at his voice, and the flood subsided for a while within its proper channels. Still it was only for a while; the social elements, let loose from the restraints of old opinion, were not so easily to be re-fettered; they soon began to fly about again more wildly than ever, jarring and conflicting with each other, and doing infinite mischief in the struggle. The robber-knights, with the redoubted Sickingen at their head, began again to exercise their privilege of private warfare, in spite of imperial edicts; and scarcely had the cities armed against this plague, than the so-called war of the peasants broke out, and desolated whole districts. of the war, and upon this league." It is difficult to guess what such a translation is intended to mean, or whether it means anything at all. The text is intelligible enough; the Pope was the originator-the cause-both of the war and of the league, the one being a necessary consequence of the other. They who will not accept this version, obvious as it seems, must suppose that the word und is merely a mistake for auf, which, after all, is not unlikely. Again, at page 408-" zum andern, so man die buchstaben besieht"-is construed by Mrs. Austen into, “on the other hand, if the letter of the edict be looked to."-Now, there is not a syllable about "the other hand;" zum andern here simply means 'besides," being the very reverse of what is implied in her There is one point, however, in which we cannot agree with translation; it is a continuation and strengthening of the foreRanke; he seems to think that Luther and his leading adhe-gone reasoning, not a contradiction of it. rents were actuated solely by principle, by a calm and deliberate conviction of the errors of Popery. Now, whether it be for good or evil, we have no faith in any such singleness of motive. Giving the Reformer full credit for many and great virtues, we should yet just as little believe this of him, as we should believe the theory of his opponents, when they affirm that he was only influenced by envy of the privileges granted to the Dominicans, the rivals of his order, or by mere appetite -for marriage with a nun. The motives, that decide men to any one line of action, are as compound as their characters. One more instance, and we have done. Page 408, vol. ii., "So wollen wir auch E. F. W. nicht bergen, dass auch das kais: Edict, so ão 21 zu Worms ausgegangen, allhie auf diesem Reichstag von Fürsten, Grafen, Herrn, und Stedten, hochlich, und fast als unmöglich in allen Puncten zu halten angefochten wird." This, the translator Englishes by, "We will not conceal from your princely worships (rather wisdoms,' the W. evidently standing for Weisheiten) that the imperial edict published at Worms anno 21, will be opposed at this diet by princes, counts, lords, and cities, as being almost impossible to be enforced in all."-This is clearly wrong; the Deputies who are writing from the Diet to those who sent them thither, mean to inform them, not of a future contingency, but of what is actually passing at the time; accordingly they say that the "edict is opposed, or is being opposed, by the princes," &c.; a use of the word wird so common, that we cannot well understand how Mrs. Austen came to overlook it. Such instances of haste, or inadverteney, might be multiplied; but where there is such ample ground for eulogy, it is as well not to pursue this ungracious theme any farther. We now come to the Fourth, and concluding Book of the two volumes already published; but having given so much space to the previous portions, we can do little more than enumerate the substance of what remains, though, as we proceed, the story of the times becomes more and more complicated. In Italy we see the Pope moving heaven and earth against the Emperor; in Germany, on the other hand, we find Charles fulminating edicts that peril his imperial authority, for the sake of maintaining the exorbitant privileges of the Church, and putting down the Protestant princes of the Empire. Of course, so contradictory a state of things cannot subsist for ever; the vigour of Charles's measures against the Lutherans is sensibly checked and cooled after a time by his political situation in respect to the Church; and there seems sufficient ground for believing that he would now have made most, if not all, of the that they are pure emanations of the imagination, and cannot Ir is the very essence of poetry, music, and the fine arts, concessions demanded by the Protestants, had he not feared by be constructed by any knowledge of rules-a very good reason, so doing to excite a spirit of revolt amongst his Catholic sub-by-the-by, why architecture, a mere mechanical thing of line jects. In fact, his position was one of uncommon difficulty; and it is a highly useful, as well as interesting page of history, that shows us how the solid mind and patient sagacity of Charles met and defeated every obstacle. ORIGINAL GEOMETRICAL DIAPER DESIGNS. By D. R. and level, should not be ranked amongst them. Of course we do not mean to deny that there are such studies as prosody and thorough-bass; but prosody does not teach us how to write a poem, nor will a knowledge of thorough-bass enable any one to Close upon this intricate web of politics, which we cannot compose the Messiah. They are at best a collection of certain pause to unravel, come the battle of Pavia, the sack of Rome, conventional observations, which men of genius are daily and the extraordinary characters of Bourbon and George Frunds-hourly in the habit of breaking through, and often, no doubt, berg, the occupation of Hungary, and a multitude of stirring to the great astonishment and indignation of pedantic blockevents, that throng upon each other with all the rapidity of action belonging to a modern melo-drama. Even in the elaborate pages of Ranke there seems at times as if something were wanting to the full understanding of the complicated motives of the various actors. But we must not allow ourselves to dwell any longer upon this fascinating topic. A few words only upon the translator, and, however reluctant to do so, we conclude our brief and imperfect investigation. We have in the outset given Mrs. Austen credit for the apparent fidelity of her translation, a qualifying epithet that we used from not having the original at hand to make the necessary comparisons. In the notes, however, she fairly and honestly gives the original of all her quotations, and in her versions of these we have remarked several inaccuracies, which, unless they are the result of mere haste and carelessness, would considerably shake our faith in the text itself. Thus, in a note appended to page 295, vol. ii., she quotes, "wurde keine Handlung leiden, er sey denn dermassen zugerichtet, dass er das Friedens begehre." This she renders, "he (i.e. the French -king) would hear of no negotiations, unless he were in a condition to ask for peace." But the king was quite in a condition to ask for peace if he had chosen to do so; it was the inclination that he wanted, and which his rival, Charles, contended he would continue to want, till he was fairly drubbed into it; the plain meaning of the text is, "that he would endure no negotiations, till he was driven to such straits (literally, so handled, so mauled) that he needed peace." Again, in another note at page 429 of the same volume, we have, "dass sie eilends den Papa, den anfaher des kriegs und dieser bundtnuss überfallen wollten," which Mrs. Austen renders by," they would suddenly fall upon the Pope, the beginner heads. Mr. Hay, the author of the volume before us, is of a contrary opinion. He is actually for teaching the inventors of carpetpatterns and other such like embellishments, to draw them, not from fancy, but from geometrical principles, or what he would have understood to be such. With this benevolent view he has given us an elementary treatise on the first principles of the art, illustrated by sundry diagrams and patterns: all very clever, but we fear infinitely too abstruse for the heads of working men, who have little time to spare from actual practice for the study of any thing but what is exceedingly obvious and simple. We much doubt, as we have already said, the utility of such a design under any circumstances; but we are quite certain that it must be altogether valueless unless it is clothed in the plainest language. A work like this is enough to appal a man of humble education. A TOKEN OF LOVE FOR LITTLE CHILDREN. 12mo. THIS is a little volume in letters, intended to instil the first elements of religion into the minds of very young children. The goodness of the writer's motives cannot be doubted; the probable results are rather more questionable. Children who are so young as to need this sort of tuition, are not in a state to grapple with the truths of religion, and, we should fear, are much more likely to ripen under its influence into fanatics than to become rational and sober-minded Christians. "Train up a child" in the way he should go, most certainly; but this does not mean that the young mind should be confused and darkened by the shadows of ideas that are far beyond its comprehension. RURAL ECONOMY. From the French of Boussingault. THIS volume is full of valuable facts, both new and old, and will no doubt be highly useful to the agriculturist, provided only that he happens to be something of a man of science. How often he is likely to be found with this indispensable qualification is another question; for ourselves, we must frankly confess that it has seldom been our good hap to meet with farmers who were so educated; we have indeed often found amongst them men of sound clear understanding, and practically well acquainted with their business, but as little able to deal with learned theories, as to solve a problem in Euclid, or construe a passage from the Syriac. There is, we admit, no just cause why a farmer should not join the theory to the practice of his employment, and in time, perhaps, it may be so; but, in the meanwhile, no writer need hope to be of much service to him, who has not the happy knack of making difficult things plain, an art which seems to have been well nigh peculiar to old William Cobbett; whatever system it pleased that singular personage to advocate, whether true or manifestly false and it was most frequently the latter-still he contrived to make himself perfectly intelligible; there was no mistaking his meaning even by the dullest, whether the subject was "Paper against Gold," or a question of the growth and nature of forest-trees; nay, even when he came to talk of anatomy, a matter of which he was so profoundly ignorant as to maintain that dissection was only the resource of indolence and that a knowledge of the human frame should be sought in books, still amidst all his absurdities you could not for a moment be doubtful of his purpose; what he meant to say, he did say, and so plainly that a child might read and understand. Now it is the want of this peculiar faculty in Monsieur Boussingault that will prevent his being of much use to the general class of agriculturists, however acceptable his work may be to the few, who are really able to avail themselves of the knowledge he lays before them. To them, no doubt, he has presented a work which, if merit is to be measured by utility, is of no common order; he has shown them, not superficially, but with all the truth and accuracy of science, the peculiar properties of each class of soil, the nature and use of each sort of manure, whether mineral or vegetable, the chemical phenomena of trees, plants, and seeds, their adaptation to certain grounds and their unfitness for others, the economy of animals attached to a farm, their qualities, their food, and their diseases, and how they may be rendered most available for the use of man, with a variety of other useful matter, that it would be impossible to detail within our narrow limits. In fact we hardly know any point connected with husbandry, on which this book does not afford some information. But though we cannot venture upon any strict analysis of a volume, whereof every page contains something too valuable to be omitted, still, that the reader may judge for himself how far this praise has been deserved, we now subjoin a brief extract; it shall be the first that comes to hand, and lo! it proves to be an interesting description of the different ways of fixing loose and barren sands that have drifted up from the sea, and are being carried onwards by the wind over the fertile parts of the country. "The mammillated downs of San Lucar are covered on the surface by a layer of quartzy sand, so loose that it is blown about by the wind; but by a happy disposition of things, a lower stratum of these downs is kept constantly moist by the waters of the Guadalquiver, and it is only necessary to remove the superficial sand, and to level the surface in order to have a loose soil which unites in the highest degree two essential conditions of fertility, viz.: openness, and a constant supply of moisture, which penetrates the soil in virtue of its permeability; under the influence of a fine climate and manure, the market gardens established in the midst of this desert are remarkable for the rapidity and the vigour of their vegetation. To avoid great expense, the labour of removing the sand is only undertaken in places where the layer is least thick; and what is removed being heaped up as a mound around the soil which is cleared, a kind of boundary wall is formed, which is not without its use in affording shelter, and which becomes productive itself by the plantations of vines and fig trees that are made upon it with a view mainly to its consolidation. In the same way in Alsace, in the plains of Haguenau, the soil which was a moving desert of sand, has, in the course of less than forty years, become one of the most fertile under the influence of incessant cultivation; in the same way also it is that in Holland, mountains of sand, which had been accumulated by the winds, have been fixed. This sand which rests upon a wet bottom, draws up the moisture by capillary attrac tion, and so becomes fit to support certain vegetables. These downs which may be said to have come out of the sea, have a constant tendency in many places to encroach upon the cultivated lands. arenaria, the long and creeping roots of which bind together the To oppose their progress, the Dutch sow them with the arundo moving mass and imprison the particles of sand within a kind of net-work. These masses of sand become fixed in this way; but they remain nearly or altogether unproductive. "It is therefore a problem of the highest importance in many instances to fix permanently masses of sand blown up from the sea, by covering them with productive plantations. This problem was engineer, who by sagacity and the choice of means and perseverance studied and successfully resolved by M. Bremontier, a French in their employment, gave a complete and practical solution of the question among the downs of the Gulf of Gascony. "The downs formed by the sand which is thrown up by the ocean between the mouths of the Adour and the Gironde, occupy a surface of 75 square leagues and have a mean elevation of from 60 to 70 feet. They form a multitude of hillocks, which appear connected by their bases, the crowns of many of them rising to a height of 160 feet these masses of sand move with a mean celerity of about 80 feet and upwards. Under the influence of the prevailing west winds, per annum, covering forests and villages in their progress. A part of the little town of Mimizan is already invaded, and it has been calculated that in the course of twenty centuries, things proceeding at their present rate, the rich territory of Bordeaux will have completely disappeared. In their progress these moving masses of sand choke up the beds of rivers, and increase the disastrous effects they produce otherwise by causing formidable inundations, Low Countries, are not altogether without moisture; a very short. "The sands of the Gulf of Gascony, like those of Holland and the way below the surface they are moist, and even present a certain degree of cohesion. This, in fact, might have been predicated, for otherwise the wind which brings them from the sea would have dispersed them in clouds of dust and to great distances; but no such dispersion takes place. Downs advance slowly, at the rate already indicated, and by rolling over, as it were, upon themselves. The sand driven by the wind creeps up on the flanks of the ridges hillocks already formed, it falls down the opposite slope, and as upon an inclined plane; after having got over the summit of the accumulates at the base. The action of the wind is only exerted upon so much of the sand as is rendered loose and moveable by its dryness; but the moist part is exposed, dried, and swept away in its turn; in this way the whole mass of sand which was at first deposited upon the west aspect of the hillocks is carried to the east, where it is in the shelter. By this process, under the influence of a advance towards the interior of the country through a space of wind which blew steadily for six days, a hillock has been seen to three and a quarter feet. "The moisture contained in the sand proceeds from the rains from the surface water that filters through it and displaces the salt water which impregnated it originally. The very slight trace of sea-salt that finally remains in it has no unfavourable influence on vegetation. "Once aware of the fact that certain plants throve in the sands of downs, Bremontier saw that they alone were capable of staying their progress and consolidating them. The grand object was to violent winds that blow off the ocean, until their roots had got get plants to grow in moving sand, and to protect them from the firm hold of the soil. "Downs do not bound the ocean like beaches. From the base of the first hillocks to the line which marks the extreme height of spring tides, there is always a level over which the sand sweeps without pausing. It was upon this level space that Bremontier sowed his first belt of pine and furze seeds, sheltering it by means of green branches, fixed by forked pegs to the ground, and in such a way that the wind should have least hold upon them, viz., by turning the lopped extremities towards the wind. Experience has shown that by proceeding thus, fir and furze seeds not only germinate, but that the young plants grow with such rapidity, that by and bye they form a thick belt, a yard and more in height. Success is now certain. The plantation, so far advanced, arrests the sand as it comes from the bed of the sea, and forms an effectual barrier to the other belts that are made to succeed it towards the interior. When the trees are five or six years of age, a new plantation is made contiguous to the first and more inland, from 200 to 300 feet in breadth, and so the process is carried on until the summits of the hillocks are gradually attained. covering the barren sands of the Arrachon basin with useful trees. We do not, however, agree entirely with the author's preference of the French to the Dutch mode of proceeding on these B 2 FORTUNES OF THE SCATTERGOOD FAMILY. By occasions; the former, it is clear, is only applicable to sands that retain a considerable degree of moisture near the surface, THE and would not be at all likely to succeed where the water had more completely evaporated under the influence of the sun. Neither do we assent to his doctrine that the sands, when fixed It is a tolerably old saying, though Horace is generally reby the method used in Holland, remain wholly, or nearly un-ferred to for its proof, that the cask will long retain the odour productive growth and decay are inseparable terms; where of the wine with which it has been once imbued. What has one is, there also the other must be; and surely where a vege- been said of the wine-cask is equally, if not more true, of the table of any kind is constantly throwing off a portion of itself as human mind, and this is more especially seen in writers, who feculent matter, or wholly perishes, it must be gradually creat- seldom fail to betray in their works the peculiar marks of their ing a soil, more or less fertile, according to the nature and previous habits and associations. Thus, while it continued to quantity of the deposit; not even the reed can go on continually be yet a mystery who was the author of the Waverley Novels, drawing nourishment from the light and rains, without impart--that is to say, a mystery to the multitude, who will not be ing some portion of its bulk to the bed in which it is rooted. at the trouble of thinking for themselves,-it was no secret at But even yet more valuable and interesting is the chapter on all to the critics of any judgment; they at once pronounced timber-trees, chiefly borrowed from the admirable work of that the unknown author must be a poet, a lawyer, and an Boucherie, and deeply do we regret that our limits will not antiquarian, for legal phrases, black-letter lore, and the imagery allow of our making any extracts. He here shows us how of a poet, were distinctly visible to them in every page; if they timber may be preserved from decay, or even from shrinking, differed at all, it was only as to who of living authors more and made to retain all its original flexibility as well as resist especially combined all these qualities in himself. Thus, too, the action of fire; how at the same time it may be uniformly with the writings of Captain Marryatt; what man of common and indelibly imbued with a variety of beautiful colours, that segacity could fail to see, without the testimony of his name, and seem thus to become a natural part of the tree itself; and, R. N. appended to it, that his works were the productions of finally, he teaches us the means by which the pyrolignite of iron, a sailor? So, too, when a young gentleman, like Mr. Albert the chloride of lime, the muriate of soda, and other preserving Smith, who writes himself up Dentist and F.R.C.S., having agents, may be surely and easily injected through the whole emerged from the trammels of apprenticeship, undertakes to mass of timber. All these plans, moreover, have the great favour the world with pictures of men and manners, it almost advantage of being very economical, while they require little inevitably follows that the said pictures, though set down by time or labour to carry them into practice; though, if they him for the portraits of gentlemen, are in fact only young were ten times as expensive, they would amply repay their cost shopmen and slang students disguised as such, and that the by the immense saving of timber, not to speak of other contin- manners which he, simply enough, designates as highly fashiongent advantages. To builders and to cabinet-makers of every able, are in truth the vulgarities of the hospital class-room. description, this chapter must be one of the deepest interest. What such men and such manners are, will be sufficiently understood by the enlightened, when we say they show quite the reverse of what is usually met with in our two universities, places for which indeed Mr. Albert Smith, and very young gentlemen of his stamp, affect to entertain a profound contempt. According to the creed of these baby-reformers, both Cambridge and Oxford have the misfortune of belonging to Old England, while they themselves appertain to a certain Utopia, which in their slang dialect is known by the name of Young England; and young in truth it is, for a set of greener goslings never cackled on a common. After all, too, this pretty cognomen is but a plagiarism, and poor enough it is, from our Gallic neighbours; the Parisian badauds chose in their magniloquence to assume the title of La Jeune France, and our Cockneys, not content with their native absurdities, must needs translate the phrase and apply it to themselves, and now it sticks to them with about as much grace as the cocked-hat of Wellington would sit upon the head of a monkey. This comes of papas and mamas sending their young hopefuls across the Channel. THE WORKS OF THE REV. ORVILLE DEWEY, D.D. 8vo. 9s. THIS Volume, thick enough for three, or even four, modest octavos, seems formed upon the model of the celebrated chapter "de omnibus rebus et quibusdam aliis." Upwards of fifty discourses (we should call them sermons) on as many different subjects," Moral Views on Commerce, Science, and Politics," some twelve in number, and cach, in American language, very lengthy "Travels in England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, France, Switzerland, and Italy;" and then some more "Essays and Discourses" upon the omnibus plan, already mentioned, combine to make up this specimen of the American priest, philosopher, traveller, and politician. A strong religious feeling pervades every part of it, as might be expected from the writer's occupation; and in all probability the volume will prove highly acceptable to those, who upon religious principle object to works of a lighter nature. ST. ETIENNE. A Romance. By Miss Martin. 3 vols. 12mo. 17. 11s. 6d. THIS is a romance from the times of the French Revolution, and only requires to be freed from its excessive verbiage to be highly interesting. There is incident enough in it to supply all the minor theatres in London with melodramas for the next three months; heroes and heroines, escapes, spies, dungeons, old castles with the usual quota of hiding-places, priests, loyalists, and republicans, flit before us like the images of some feverish dream, and it would be as difficult to analyse their By the Rev. Amongst the affectations of this school-and it abounds in them is a desperate determination to be funny on all occasions, and never so much so as when to ordinary minds it would seem least called for; like Dogberry, with his reading and writing, they always "let it appear when there is no need of such vanity." But as there is a multitude of objects in art and nature not easily convertible into jokes, recourse is had to other means with such refractory topics. Your would-be jester-who, by the bye, wears motley without a spark of the wit that should belong to it-immediately adopts the periphrastic phraseology of Dr. Johnson; but always with this difference; the Doctor, notwithstanding the sneer of his friend Goldsmith, did for the most part use big words to express corresponding ideas, whereas our Young Englanders employ all the tortuous arts of periphrasis to convey the meanest ideas, or no ideas at all. Thus, when Mr. Albert Smith wishes to tell us that, it being a cold, frosty night, a waggoner beat his breast and stamped upon the ground to keep himself warm, he clothes the common-place in such words as these:-"He went through the series of violent gymnastics with his arms and legs, popularly supposed purpose and actions in one case as in the other. THE DIVINE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. F. Fysh, M.A. 12mo. 58. MR. FYSH's object is to build up a history of the Church on the Apocalypse, and to overthrow the claims, or pretensions, as he would call them, of the Pope, by wresting the various passages in it to his purpose. With this he has mixed up an account | of the persecution of the Vaudois, a most atrocious page in to generate caloric." And again :-"On these tables, which history no doubt, but which no more proves the fallacy of the Papal claims, than the cruelties of Calvin prove that the Protestants are heretics. The dispute between the two churches must be settled upon other and far more enlightened grounds; but in truth all this wrangling and bitterness of spirit had better be avoided on both sides, if not from decency and a right Christian feeling, at least from a prudent regard to the general interests of religion. Men are not made Christians by being taught to hate their neighbours. were void of cloth, were dog-eared periodicals, transparent from the frequent contact of adipose toast, or ornamented with arabesque rings of evaporated coffee, produced by careless guests, who turned the weekly unstamped journals of modern Athens." Shades of Watts and Lindley Murray! here's a mighty parade of fine words to express papers spotted with grease and stained with coffee! Is it thus Mr. Albert Smith, F.R.C.S., addresses his servant ?" Mary, bring me some adipose toast!" Of course the handmaiden, being duly initiated into the dialect |