We

they are found in the word of God, whether doctrinal or preceptive, historical or experimental, there must and will be healthful mental exercise throughout a congregation, in hearing it, and in subsequent reflection upon it. Let it be remembered, also, that this is a constantly recurring instrumentality for operating on men's minds, who are found in the places of worship regularly on the Sabbath. There are multitudes who are not found in attendance on the preaching of the gospel; and it certainly is to their own detriment, as intellectual beings, to say nothing of their spiritual nature. Let the examination be carefully made, in any well-ordered parish. Let the intellectual character of those who attend on the ministry of sound and thoroughly educated men be examined, and they compared with an equal number of persons, of equal native powers of mind, but in negligent habits as to this duty, and the result will be in favor of the superior intellectual character of those whose minds are every Sabbath plied with Christian instruction. A minister, having respectable talents, in the progress of years, will stamp an intellectual character upon all the minds about him. have an example in a venerable minister in one of our country parishes, not long since deceased,—who had done what many do not, remained in his place for life,-who had used his own mind to work industriously, carefully and powerfully upon other minds, and to give them materials for thinking, and so to preach that they could not help thinking. The writer of this article has had some acquaintance with individuals who sat under his ministry; and never yet saw one who did not show that, as an intellectual being, if nothing more, he had received valuable mental training, by sitting before that minister's pulpit,—had habits of discrimination, familiarity with reasoning, clear conception of subjects, and mental acuteness, which, aside from all religious considerations and benefits, were of inestimable worth to him, as a man with a mind. Now very true, not every parish minister is a Dr. Emmons, nor can deal with men's intellects as he did, and do all he accomplished for their development. And yet, in proportion to his talents, mental culture, diligence, and instructiveness as a religious teacher, every good parish minister is doing the same. Estimate the amount of intellectual power which is employed, one day in seven, upon congregations of from 200 to 1200, 1500, or 2000 minds,

over the country in which religious institutions are sustained, -these, as constituting a good portion of the best minds in the country, which have felt the influence of popular education, and examine the mental habits of people throughout the land, who are familiar with pulpit instruction, and they will compare to decided advantage with any and all others. Look about among the people of a city full of churches, and where the majority perhaps find each his place on the Sabbath before some pulpit. Who are the intelligent and mentally active? The people who, in the common affairs of this life, act most as though they had intellects regulated and trained. Ask after their Sabbath habits, and trace them to their places of religious attendance; you will find them before pulpits, where talents, education, and mental discipline are employed in setting forth religious instruction, and in stimulating the energies both of conscience and intellect. And there is no single instrumentality in operation for the development of minds which have come under the influence of a popular education, whose arrest and annihilation would sooner be followed with a deterioration of the popular mind, than that of the pulpit. This is not by any means to be said in glorification of ministers; but is to be placed to the account of the great and powerful elements of instruction which the word of God furnishes, and which ministers are occupied in setting forth; and to the certainty that an active intellect, surrounded with hundreds of others on which to operate relative to any subject whatever, but especially the subjects of revelation, subjects of eternal interest, will move and set at work, with more or less intensity, the intellects about him. It is the power of thought upon thinkers; of reasoning, upon beings who can feel the force of reasoning; the power of demonstrated truth, of truth divine, upon minds which God has made, and for the expansion as well as sanctification of which, he has revealed the truths of his holy word.

ARTICLE IV.

GENERAL HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION IN EUROPE.

General History of Civilization in Europe, from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the French Revolution. By M. GUIZOT, Professor of History in the Faculty of Literature in Paris, and Minister of Public Instruction. Third American, from the second English edition; with occasional notes by C. S. HENRY, D. D., Professor of Philosophy and History in the University of New York. D. Appleton & Co. New York. 1842. 12mo. pp. 316.

The Influence of Scientific Discovery and Invention on Social and Political Progress. Oration delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Brown University, Providence, R. I., on Commencement day, September 6, 1843. By JOB DURFEE. Providence. B. Cranston & Co. 1843. pp. 52.

We are glad to learn that this able history by M. Guizot is becoming extensively popular in this country. It has already passed through three editions, the last of which has been rendered additionally attractive by the marginal notes introduced by Prof. Henry, for the purpose of aiding, here and there, the mind of the youthful student in the study of the original, and thereby facilitating the introduction of the work as a text-book into our literary institutions. This is one of those original and important productions, which make the grand tour of the literary world; and which is fortunate in having been brought across the straits of Dover, and the Atlantic, by an Oxford translator, who understands both the French and the English languages, higher praise than can be awarded all those who have recently tried their hand at translating from the German. The work consists of a series of lectures, which were listened to by crowded and enthusiastic audiences in the university of Paris, and which, when afterwards published, created a very strong sensation among the cultivated and reflecting portion of the author's countrymen. But so lucid is their method, and so liberal their sentiments, so universal, and, for the most part,

so sound their principles, so free their style of thought from the influence of any particular system of philosophy, of local prejudices, temporary opinions, and strictly national peculiarities, that they are fitted to become well nigh as popular among the intelligent students of history in foreign countries, as they are at home. And besides this French clearness and directness of method, and besides this reach of general principles, limited by no individual, local, or temporary modes of thought, these lectures are written with such genial ease, such grace of movement, and such glowing, yet chastened fervor, that the mind of the reader is stimulated to almost the same intensity of thought, as must have been that of the hearer. M. Guizot carries his readers along with him to the attack of a great problem, with the same impetuosity of onset with which Napoleon led on his columns to victory at Austerlitz and Marengo. The lectures, having been published without alteration, as they were delivered, have an earnestness and directness of address, which, though unusual in a book, is highly impressive, and not at all incongruous with such a subject as the majestic, triumphant progress of European civilization. The author possesses, also, a vigor of imagination, and an intensity of social sympathy, which enable him strongly to conceive, and warmly to portray the character of the men and institutions of former times. And communicating these conceptions and sentiments, not by a detailed narration of the facts of history, but by a bold sketch of its most prominent features and leading principles, he revivifies the spirit, as well as the form of the past, in a way which marks the philosophical historian. In the outset, the author takes the reader back in imagination to the first ages of Christianity, where, enveloped in the obscurity of those distant times, they stand together at the sources of modern civilization, as stands, for example, the traveller in the giant mountains of Silesia, amid drifting clouds, at the fountains of the Elbe. Then they proceed to trace down together the devious course of the tiny streamlet, at first losing itself, ever and anon, amid the ruins of the Roman empire. In the fifth century, however, embarking upon the broad surface of the widening river, they sail along, now between banks on which lie embosomed the tents of the barbarians, the towns of the Romans, and the monasteries of the church; then, underneath crags, overlooked by the castles of feudal chieftains; here,

touching at the marts of the free cities; there, holding on their course through plains covered by the victorious bands of Charlemagne, and the red-crossed hosts of the crusaders; sometimes within sight of chivalrous tournaments, and within sound of romantic Minnesingers; often catching a view of bloody frays between hostile clans and haughty barons, and occasionally, but too rarely, cheered by the prospect of the still life of peace; until, at length, having passed by the scenes of the Protestant reformation, the English and French revolutions, they disembark on the shore of modern times, and leave the fast flowing current of civilization to rush on towards that ocean of futurity which it will never reach.

The oration of the Hon. Job Durfee, the title of which, also, stands at the head of this article, may with propriety be mentioned in connection with the History of M. Guizot; for, as will more fully appear in the course of our remarks, the former sets forth the doctrine, of which the latter may be viewed as furnishing the illustration. Nor is the work of the American, though brief, unworthy to stand by the side of the more learned and elaborate effort of the Frenchman. It is the mature production of a thinker of no ordinary abilities,—of one, we may be permitted to add, who has so long allowed his mind. to lie fallow under the fertilizing influences of time, that we entertain the hope of soon seeing it prepared to yield a harvest of ripe and most costly fruits. The author is Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court in the State of Rhode Island; and, like some of the illustrious civilians of ancient times, combining the pursuit of agriculture with the profession of law, he relieves the labors of both the bench and the field by the grateful study of letters. As a magistrate, he has distinguished himself during the recent struggle through which the State of Rhode Island has so gallantly passed, by the ability with which he has defended the great principles of constitutional liberty against the sophistries of demagogues, and by the determined patriotism, worthy of the earlier and more glorious days of the republic, wherewith he has aided in repelling the dishonor attempted to be inflicted upon the reputation of his native State. The author of Whatcheer is, also, favorably known in England as a poet, though less so in his own country, which, we are sorry to say, is too apt to be blind to the merits of domestic art, until it has first been recognized by foreign criticism; and is less inclined to foster with due affec

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