1850.] Notices of Recent Publications. 171 travels of Drs. Olin, Durbin, and Wilson, Mr. Stephens, Messrs. Irby and Mangle, Burckhardt, Lamartine, and especially Dr. Robinson. A work like this, coming from a ripe scholar like Dr. Coleman, as the fruit of thorough investigation, we think, ought to be welcomed as a valuable addition to the accessible stores of Biblical knowledge. And we shall be surprised if it does not come into extensive use, not only among teachers of Sabbath schools, but among the youth of our land generally, in schools, academies, and colleges, who study the geography of the Bible as a part of education. The Boston Book. Being Specimens of Metropolitan Literature. Boston Ticknor, Reed, & Fields. 1850. 12mo. pp. 364. THIS volume forms the fourth series of the Boston Book, and contains selections, alternately in prose and verse, from fifty-five writers, whose names are in a greater or less degree associated with this city of our affections. Most of the pieces have already appeared in print; but we notice several which are now published for the first time. Among the new pieces are a fine poem by Dr. Holmes, two new poems by Dr. T. W. Parsons, Jr., the translator of Dante, an amusing tale by the Hon: George Lunt, and a chapter of personal recollections of Dr. Chalmers, by the venerable Dr. Sharp, of the Charles Street Baptist Church. An article on Goodness, by the Rev. F. D. Huntington, is also, we believe, new. Among the other selections are a paper on The Old Latin School-House, by Mr. Hillard, written in his usual graceful and happy manner, a very picturesque and beautiful article, entitled The Seen and the Unseen, by the Rev. Dr. Peabody, a poem by Mr. Everett, Mr. Longfellow's Resignation, a poem by Mr. Andrews Norton, at once one of the greatest theologians and one of the sweetest poets in the land, Mr. Fields's lines On a Book of Sea-Mosses, an extract from Dr. Frothingham's Sermon on the Death of Dr. Greenwood, an eloquent extract from one of Mr. Choate's ablest and most practical speeches, the conclusion of Mr. Russell's Oration on the Merchant, and well-chosen selections from Messrs. Webster, Winthrop, Whipple, Sprague, Epes Sargent, Prescott, Sparks, and other able and popular writers. In these selections the editor, who has very modestly withheld his name, has displayed great discrimination; and he is entitled to high praise for the judicious and impartial manner in which he has executed his task. He has given sufficient variety in his selections to please widely different tastes, by skilfully blending tales and light essays with graver discussions. The volume is ornamented by a beautiful engraving of the fountain on the Common, from the pencil of Mr. Hammatt Billings. A Review of Trinitarianism; chiefly as it appears in the Writ ings of Pearson, Bull, Waterland, Sherlock, Howe, Newman, Coleridge, Wallis, and Wardlaw: with a Brief Notice of sundry Passages of the New Testament, bearing on this Controversy. By JOHN BARLING. London: Chapman. 1847. 12mo. pp. 240. THE title of this book is a sufficient index to its contents. The extreme and middle views which leading theologians have expressed on the doctrine of the Trinity are presented in their own words, are compared and weighed, and their inconsistencies and weak foundations are exposed. The author shows candor and acuteness. He has chosen one of the least repulsive features and methods of a controversy, with which it is now high time that the world had done for ever. A Compendium of Ecclesiastical History. By DR. JOHN C. L. GIESELER, Consistorial Counsellor and Ordinary Professor of Theology in Göttingen. From the Fourth Edition, revised and amended. Translated from the German, by SAMUEL DAVIDSON, LL. D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Ecclesiastical History in the Lancashire Independent College. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1849. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 396, 397. GIESELER'S History is known to most of our professional readers by the translation of it by the Rev. Francis Cunningham, published in Philadelphia in 1836. It is in the strictest sense a compend, the text being very brief and condensed, containing merely a summary of facts, incidents, opinions, and general information, while most copious foot-notes illustrate and confirm the writer's statements. It is fit only for students, but has a very high value for them. Its introductory matter embraces a vast deal of information. Its exposition of the evangelic narratives is very elabo rate. It brings its subject down to the Reformation, and furnishes in its classifications and authorities the evidence of the most unwearied research and toil, attended with impartiality and candor. The translator, in claiming to have improved upon Mr. Cunningham's labors, ought to have been careful to spell his name rightly, as he has not done. Journals of the Rev. Thomas Smith and the Rev. Samuel Deane, Pastors of the First Church in Portland; with Notes and 1850.] Notices of Recent Publications. 173 Biographical Notices; and a Summary History of Portland. By WILLIAM WILLIS. Portland: Joseph S. Bailey. 1849. 8vo. pp. 484. THE diaries of the two clergymen which are printed in this volume, with rich illustrative notes, cover nearly a century, and, with the parochial information which may properly be given under an account of the ministry of their living successor, the Rev. Dr. Nichols, extend over a period of one hundred and twenty-three years. The volume is rich in antiquarian lore, sanctified by a devotional spirit, and eminently worthy of its most industrious. compiler. The excellent portrait of Dr. Nichols will make its value complete to many of our readers. A History of the Town of Duxbury, Massachusetts, with Genealogical Registers. By JUSTIN WINSOR. Boston: Crosby & Nichols, and S. G. Drake. 1849. 8vo. pp. 360. THIS volume is more valuable as a chronicle of earlier than of later days. There is much of interest in the localities and in the men of the ancient town of Duxbury, because of their connection with the Old Colony of Plymouth. Ecclesiastically the volume confines its narrative to the history of the First Parish. Though such volumes have a limited interest for general readers, they may claim an honored shelf in all our libraries, and will be henceforward of supreme importance to each successive annalist of New England. Annals of Salem. By JOSEPH B. FELT. Vol. II. Second Edition. Salem: W. & S. B. Ives. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1849. 12mo. pp. 664. MR. FELT is a most indefatigable and painstaking antiquarian. He has had the best opportunities of any man among us for researches into New England annals, as he was employed by the Legislature of this Commonwealth to arrange its ancient archives, - which task he performed most ably, and has been for years the Librarian of the Massachusetts Historical Society. He has thoroughly chronicled all the historical incidents of Salem and Ipswich, and years of toil are here condensed in their fruits on single pages. He preserves in his style the moralizing spiritof the old Puritans whom he loves. The American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge, for the Year 1850. Boston Little & Brown. 1849. 12mo. PP. 348. THIS is the twenty-first in the series of volumes which have been issued under the same title in as many successive years. It is equally valuable to Americans to keep with them at home, and to take with them abroad. Its astronomical department has been under the charge of Professor Peirce, as heretofore. The usual tables, statistics, and information relating to public affairs in the general and State governments, are given with the most faithful endeavours to secure accuracy. The volume contains an account of the Fairmount, Croton, and Cochituate Water-Works, in the three great cities of the Union. Such particulars relating to the other hemisphere as are of general interest, and a Chronicle of Events, and Obituaries of the departed during the previous year, at home and abroad, fill up the labored pages of this valuable annual. Who ever appreciates the toil which is given to such a volume ? A Copious and Critical English-Latin Lexicon, founded on the German-Latin Dictionary of Dr. Charles Ernest Georges. By the REV. J. E. RIDDLE, M. A., and the REV. T. K. ARNOLD, M. A. First American Edition, carefully revised, and containing a copious Dictionary of Proper Names from the best Sources. By CHARLES ANTHON, LL. D., Professor of the Greek and Latin Languages in Columbia College. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1849. 8vo. pp. 754. A System of Ancient and Medieval Geography, for the Use of Schools and Colleges. By CHARLES ANTHON, LL. D., Professor of the Greek and Latin Languages in Columbia College, New York, and Rector of the Grammar School. New York : Harper & Brothers. 1850. 8vo. pp. 769. DR. ANTHON'S books grow in size, as their numbers multiply, and we think they become more and more thorough and valuable. The rising generation of pupils, at least the less diligent portion of them, cannot but be grateful to him for all that he has done to make the labor of classical studies light and easy. All his works seem to have that end in view. His edition of the English-Latin Dictionary, the original portion of which consists principally of the valuable Lexicon of Proper Names, is a great improvement upon the old, meagre, and dingy pages devoted to that service in Ainsworth. The bulky volume on Ancient and Mediæval Geography required a faithful use of the rich materials which have 1850.] Notices of Recent Publications. 175 been gathering during the last forty years. The author has availed himself of the most of them, and has given the valuable matter of a great many volumes. Miriam, and Joanna of Naples, with other Pieces in Verse and Prose. By LOUISA J. HALL. Boston Crosby & Nichols. 1850. 12mo. pp. 404. THIS volume does not contain all the published pieces of the highly esteemed authoress. If she omitted such of them as have appeared in the pages of the Monthly Religious Magazine, or in forms designed to serve the uses of benevolence, because she did not think them worthy to be gathered in, she mistook the judgment of those who have read them with so much pleasure and interest. Two editions of "Miriam " have given to it a wide circulation, with nothing but approving criticism. "Joanna of Naples" is a narrative truly and touchingly told. The miscellaneous pieces have their value, partly from their subjects, and partly from the fidelity and simplicity with which they are treated. The Whale and his Captors; or the Whaleman's Adventures, and the Whale's Biography, as gathered on the Homeward Cruise of the "Commodore Preble." By REV. HENRY T. CHEEVER. With Engravings. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1850. 16mo. pp. 314. FROM the graphic pages of this little volume, and from its startling engravings, we have actually learned more about the excitements and perils of the whale fishery, than from more ambitious and extended volumes. Whether the author was engaged in what, by a large license, he may regard as an apostolic calling, when he wrote this book, is rather doubtful. But he has made a book for the young which will have many most absorbed readers. It is well thus to have "sailors' yarns "indorsed by more deliberate witnesses. We would commend the book most highly to parents and the collectors of juvenile libraries. General History of the Christian Religion and Church. From the German of DR. AUGUSTUS NEANDER. Translated from the First, revised and altered throughout according to the Second Edition. By JOSEPH TORREY, Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy in the University of Vermont. Volume |