his body. "Thus fell Cicero, December 7th, B. C. 43,-the noblest victim of the bloody Triumvirate. He was exactly sixty-three years, eleven months, and five days old when he died." His head and his hands were sent to Antony in Rome, and then, in bitter mockery, they were nailed to the Rostra, the scene of the triumphs of his eloquence. It was fitting that, in after years, when perhaps the remorse of Augustus had raised Cicero's son to the Consulship, he should commit to this son the destruction of every statue and monument that bore the name of Antony. As a man, Cicero may be subject to the charges of insincerity and vanity, for his public speeches and his private letters are often inconsistent, and he was never weary of sounding his own praises. But there is no public man of Rome whose character is so free from censure, and we involuntarily confess his superiority when we resort to a Christian standard in our estimate of his character. His last treatise was his De Officiis, in which he places duty upon a much higher ground than many of the utilitarian systems of the present day. He was ever a lover of virtue, even of whatsoever was true, and honest, and just, and pure, and lovely, and of good report, so far as man can ever be, without the pale of a written revelation. Genial and witty, he was the life of the circle in which he moved, as well as the first of his country's orators, the best of her writers, the purest of her statesmen; and, with his profound convictions of duty and of the great doctrines of a Providence and a future state, he was the wisest of her philosophers. Well did a historian remark of him :"Vivit vivetque per omnem sæculorum memoriam; ... citiusque e mundo genus hominum quam Ciceronis gloria e memoriâ hominum unquam cedet."* * Vell. Paterc. ii. 66. ART. V.-Social Life of the Chinese; with some Account of The Land and the Book; or, Biblical Illustrations drawn from the Manners and Customs, the Scenes and Scenery of the Holy Land. By WILLIAM M. THOMSON, D. D., for twentyfive years a Missionary of the A. B. C. F. M. in Syria and Palestine. Zulu Land; or, Life among the Zulu Kafirs of Natal and Zulu Land, South Africa. By Rev. LEWIS GRANT, for fifteen years a Missionary of the A. B. C. F. M. in South Africa. Expedition to the Zambesi. By DAVID and CHARLES LIVING STONE. The Hawaiian Islands; their Progress and Condition under Missionary Labours. By RUFUS ANDERSON, D. D., Foreign Secretary of the A. B. C. F. M. It is no part of our object to give a critical notice or examination of the several works whose titles we have inserted. They were all written by missionaries, except the last; and that records the results of long-continued and faithful missionary labour among a savage people. In the following pages we propose to speak, not of the direct influence of Christian missions, in the civilization and social improvement of heathen tribes, or in their conversion and preparation for heaven; but rather of their indirect influence upon society and the world. Our subject is the bearing of the foreign missionary enterprise upon the cause of science and learning generally; and we accept the titles of the works above. mentioned, to which many others equally appropriate might be added,—as a motto in this undertaking. Were we disposed to make the most of this subject, we might call attention, first of all, to the labours of the primitive Christian missionaries, the apostles, and their successors for the next four hundred years,-who not only traversed the vast Roman empire, embodying at that period all the civilized portions of the earth, but who penetrated on every side the surrounding regions of darkness and barbarism, carrying with them the lights and consolations of religion, and also the lesser lights of learning and science. The staid and mystic oriental, the untutored Africah, the rude barbarians of northern and western Europe, including our own indomitable ancestors, were first taught the use of letters, as well as brought under the humanizing influence of Christianity, by the labours of missionaries. We might also refer to the Nestorian missionaries of the middle ages, who penetrated the wide fields of central Asia, from the uttermost bounds of China to the Euphrates and the Caspian sea, softening the hearts of the fierce natives, and enriching their minds with the rudiments of learning and the elements of holy truth. It was through this region, that the celebrated Venetian traveller, Marco Polo, passed in his excursion to the distant East. It was the Nestorian churches chiefly, that he visited and described. And the fact that, by some, his narrative has been regarded as little better than romance, was owing more to the ignorance of the reader than to a want of competency and fidelity in the writer. We might refer also to the Romish missionaries of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. For whatever may be thought as to the result of their labours in a religious point of view, we are persuaded that, in a literary view, full justice has not been meted to them. The principal scene of their labours was southern and eastern Asia, with some part of Africa, Mexico, and South America; and it is not too much to say, that nearly all the accurate knowledge of these great countries which the world possessed, until the last seventy years, was derived from these men. The publications of the French missionaries alone amounted to fifty large volumes, all of which were read with avidity, not only by priests and monks, but by the ablest scholars in Europe. The ancient maps of the interior pro vinces of China and Cochin China, of the greater Tartary, Thibet, and Japan, were constructed almost entirely by the Papal missionaries. The earliest accounts of Congo and Abyssinia were from the same source, and served as a guide to Mr. Bruce, in his subsequent travels through those countries. The Papal missionaries in South America explored and described vast regions, which had never before been visited by any European. One of these men wrote a history of the New World, of which Dr. Robertson says: "It contains more accurate observations, and more sound science, than are to be found in any description of remote countries published in that age." Another of them left a manuscript history of St. Domingo, which was the basis of the work of Charlesvoix. But it is not our intention to enlarge on the writings of these missionaries of a former age, or on the indebtedness of the literary world to their labours. We choose rather to call attention to the modern missionary enterprise,—that which commenced among Protestants near the beginning of the present century, and is still prosecuted with so much vigor and success. That there is an important connection between this great enterprise and the general cause of learning and science, so that the devotees of the latter have much to expect from the continued progress of the former, and consequently should feel a deep interest in it, is to us exceedingly obvious; and we shall endeavour so to present the subject as to make it obvious to others. What then is the modern missionary enterprise? How much is involved in it? What is it aiming to accomplish? Those engaged in this work have undertaken to extend the Christian religion throughout the length and breadth of the earth. They have undertaken,-in literal obedience to the command of Christ,-to "preach the gospel to every creature." In prosecuting this grand design, they are engaged, so fast as men and means can be furnished, in sending forth missionaries into all lands,-to the east and the west, the north and the south, to countries civilized and uncivilized, near and remote, to regions long inhabited, and to the newly discovered islands of the sea. The whole earth is to be visited and explored, and the blessings of civilization and the gospel are to be extended to all people. And who are the men employed in this mighty enterprise? Not the ignorant and inefficient,-dunces who could do nothing at home, and from whom enlightened Christian society is quite willing to relieve itself. The men sent out as missionaries are, in the first place, educated men,-men who, with few exceptions, have been liberally, thoroughly educated,—men who have enjoyed the best advantages which the universities and seminaries of Christendom can boast. Then they are, in general, men of peculiar and distinguished talents, men capable of looking closely at subjects presentedof directing, to a great extent, their own studies and movements,―of pursuing successfully the most arduous literary as well as spiritual labours; of grappling effectually with whatever difficulties or opposition may be thrown in their way. It would be vain, on such an errand, to send forth other men than these; and such, in general, are the men whom the directors of modern missions have sought out, and actually sent out, into the service. If any doubt this, let them run their eye over the catalogue of missionaries who have gone forth from the different churches of England and America, during the last seventy years. There he may read the honoured names of Buchanan, and Martyn, and Morrison, and Milne, and Carey, and Marshman, and Ward, and Hall, and Abeel, and Judson, and Poor, and Eli Smith, and Miron Winslow, among the departed. He may read also the no less honoured names of King, and Hamlin, and Duff, and Goodell, and Perkins, and Thurston, and Scudder, and Byington, and Livingston, among the living. We might mention a great many others, of perhaps equal ability, -turmæ nobilissimæ juvenum,-who have more recently gone to their several fields of labour. Among these are to be found not only clergymen, but physicians, printers, artisans, agriculturists, and others from the different walks of life. They are, in the general, men who had the best prospects before them in their native lands, and who, by their talents and learning, their intellectual ability and moral worth, are capable of making their influence felt, and themselves respected, anywhere. And these men are sent forth into different parts of the |