of the text, or to be recited in the school-room, seem ill-advised in an educational work, no matter how beautiful or harmonious they may be. We would never advocate or defend any tampering with the text, but individual Odes may always be omitted without harm to the remainder. The notes are copious, and appear to have been prepared with great care. A Life of Horace and a Table of Metres are pre Studies in Christian Biography, or Hours with Theologians and Reformers. By SAMUEL OSGOOD, Minister of the Church of the Messiah in New York. New York: C. S. Francis & Co. - Boston: J. H. Francis. 1850.. 12mo. A THIS is the work of an accomplished scholar. The general reader will hardly appreciate the amount of learning and labor," of dry theological research and extended literary culture, which is condensed in this volume; and still less, how much of all these were required as a general preparation for writing it. Without giving a formal history of Christianity, it is probably, within certain limits, the most impressive and instructive mode of presenting its history to the popular mind. In the Christian Church there have arisen, from time to time, great men, who were not only the best exponents of the age in which they lived, but the ones who did most towards giving direction to theological thought and devotional forms and ecclesiastical discipline in succeeding ages. In reading their lives, we are placed at the centres of movement. In understanding their minds and char acters, we have a key to the intellectual and moral history of the Church. To understand the true spirit of any age, we go, not to the ignorant and apathetic, but to those who embodied in themselves, in the highest degree, its characteristic spirit. Mr. Osgood has not treated of all the great names in Christian history, but still it is a grand procession which moves before us through his pages. Augustine, Chrysostom, Jerome, Calvin, Teresa, Socinus, Grotius, George Fox, Swedenborg, Wesley, Edwards, Howard, the persons of whose characters and works and times he gives account. They were not only marked and influential in their own day, but their influence survives in the intellectual and moral convictions and habits of Christendom. we read of these "representative men," we travel back through the past, not painfully, step by step, through the valleys, but from hill-top to hill-top, while we are able, from the high summit to which we are raised, to have a vision of the whole region round about. these are As 1850.] Notices of Recent Publications. 505 Such works as this of Mr. Osgood by no means supersede the want of more elaborate histories; but for those who have little leisure for reading, they sum up the results of history in the most interesting and useful way, while, at the same time, those familiar with the annals of the Church find in such accounts of its leading men those general points discussed in which their knowledge of particular facts leads them to take the greatest interest. Mr. Osgood takes for the motto of his title-page the words of Paul, "Diversities of gifts, but the same spirit." In reading the volume, we are struck with the slight degree in which Christian controversies have to do with the essentials of religion. The idea of goodness is substantially the same in all sects. Had Augustine, or Teresa, or Wesley, or Edwards, while their characters remained the same, exchanged opinions with each other, they would have been the ornaments of the body which they joined, as they had been of that which they left, and as they are now, when the controversies of their day have subsided, the orna ments of the Christian Church. This does not show that truth is unimportant, but it goes far to show that those truths which have most to do with the formation of character are, in a great degree, received by all sects, and that religious controversies, for the most part, relate to secondary and unimportant questions. One advantage of such a volume as this is, that, in showing the unity of spirit between those differing most widely in speculation, it inculcates the duty and reasonableness among Christians of mutual toleration and respect. In expressing our gratification with this work, we will add the hope that Mr. Osgood may find time, amidst other duties, to give to the world, in a still fuller and more elaborate form, the results of his studies in Christian history. We hardly need to inform our readers that most of the contents of this volume will be familiar to them, as having appeared in previous years in our own pages. The Life and Religion of Mohammed, as contained in the Sheeah Traditions of the HYAT-UL-KULOOB. Translated from the Persian. By Rev. JAMES L. MERRICK. Boston: Phillips, Sampson, & Co. 1850. 12mo. pp. 484. THIS Volume contains, in a condensed form, a translation of the second of a set of three volumes, which together constitute the traditionary authority of Mohammed and his religion for the Sheeâhs. This large sect of the followers of the "Prophet" is composed chiefly of Persians, while the rival sect of the Sunnee embraces Arabs, Turks, and Tartars. The translator, having been for eleven years a missionary in Persia, should be well qualified for the literary task which he has here performed, so that we can read his pages with confidence. His volume is all the more likely to find readers, because of the recent publication of Irving's Life of Mohammed. Very different, however, are the contents and the style of the two works. In that before us all the wonders, myths, and false miracles which superstition and credulity have gathered about the author of Islamism are related with confident assurance. Doubtless, we have in this volume the very best account of the life and religion of Mohammed, as he and it are regarded by his own followers, that has ever been given in any European language. Some rich beauties of thought and diction will be found in these pages. The descriptions of Mohammed's battles are drawn with spirit, and much interesting matter is offered to the reader. The Annual of Scientific Discovery; or Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art, exhibiting the most important Discoveries and Improvements, &c., &c. Edited by DAVID A. WELLS and GEORGE BLISS, Jr. Boston: Gould, Kendall, & Lincoln. 1850. 12mo. pp. 392. THIS is a work which is sure to be popular and valued, where its existence is known. Science gathers every year materials enough to fill a volume like this with information, intelligible even to unscientific readers. Works of the same character have for some years past been published in Great Britain and on the Continent. We have looked over this first American work of the kind with great interest, and would commend it for the evident faithfulness and industry of which it gives proof, as well as for the great value of its information. The Optimist. By HENRY T. TUCKERMAN. New York: George P. Putnam. 1850. 12mo. pp. 274. FOUNDED on the better one of the two significations of the philosophical term "Optimism," this delightful and healthful volume of essays seeks to draw the means of good from the common and familiar experiences of life. It is written in the best? spirit of cheerfulness and wisdom. It is equally suited for perusal in the leisure hours of healthful occupation, and in the chamber of retirement under pain or trial. 1850.] Notices of Recent Publications. 507 The Angel World, and other Poems. By PHILIP JAMES BAILEY, Author of "Festus." Boston Ticknor, Reed, & Fields. 1850. 16mo. pp. 114. THOUGH Some hard words, with occasional infelicities of expression, and some more eccentric utterances of strange thoughts, are found in this volume, as in the previous poem of the same author, we find in this a purer fancy and a more devout tone. We like some of the single poems better than any portion of that which fills more than two thirds of the volume. Passages of occasional pathos and tenderness, and brilliant flashes of aspiring faith and feeling, appear on many pages. No. 3. Downing Boston: Phillips, Latter-Day Pamphlets, by THOMAS CARLYLE. No. 1. The CARLYLE has managed, for more than fifteen years, to maintain a position in literature and in philosophy inexplicable to most persons. His jargon of language, his commonplaces raised on the stilts of extravagant or ludicrous phrases, and his somewhat promiscuous assaults upon all shams and pretences and conventional notions, gave to him a notoriety and an influence which he never would have attained had he kept to the use of English, and qualified his ridicule and bitterness by taking counsel from common sense and truth. Nothing is easier than to enter into a general crusade of fault-finding against all the institutions of society, and against the measures which from time to time give promise of advancing social and political interests. The epithet which, of all others, is most deserved by Carlyle, is that of "the fault-finder." We confess, however, that he does not invent his materials. These four Latter-Day Pamphlets are filled with sarcasms, flings, and abuse of somebody, or of every body. Yet they also contain pure wit, and a measure of reason. He is now taken most hardly to task by the philanthropists, among whom he once had his chief admirers, for his severe assaults upon "the rose-water" benevolence of the age. The second pamphlet is the most extravagant of the series thus far. Schiller's Song of the Bell. A new Translation. By W. H. FURNESS. With Poems and Ballads from Goethe, Schiller, and others. By F. H. HEDGE. Philadelphia: Hazard & Mitchell. 12mo. pp. 48. -- THE "Song of the Bell" has been repeatedly rendered in English, by different hands, with very different success. Of the various translations known to us, this of Dr. Furness is, in all respects, the most complete. Its fidelity is remarkable, and has been achieved with no sacrifice of the English idiom. Of course, in a good lyric poem, and in proportion to its goodness, there is something which must evaporate in any translation. The form may be preserved, the precise meaning may be given, the "ipsissima verba," may be rendered by their logical equivalents in another tongue; but the subtile and undefinable aroma which consists in the associations rather than the meanings connected with the chosen words of the original, and which constitutes the true charm of a lyric, is not transferable. That no study can embalm, and no language reproduce. The best poetical versions we have seen bear but the same relation to their originals that flowers preserved in a hortus siccus bear to the same flowers on their native stalks. Form, color, texture, are there; but the odor has fled. Dr. F. has done all that translation can do in overcoming this difficulty. As far as was possible, he has preserved the spirit as well as the form of this wonderful poem, in whose service the arts of music and design have loved to minister. We regard it as the most successful solution hitherto of a very difficult task. Of the other pieces in this volume, the greater part have been favorably known to the public in other connections. Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man. By THOMAS REID, D. D., F. R. S. E. Abridged. With Notes and Illustrations from Sir William Hamilton and others. Edited by JAMES WALKER, D. D., Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy in Harvard College. Cambridge: John Bartlett. 1850. 12mo. pp. 462. THE plan and arrangement of Dr. Walker's edition of this work, whose reputation is well established, are such as to adapt it to the use of students. The omission of some passages, containing repetitions or digressions not important to the arguments treated, has allowed the editor space to introduce the annotations of Sir William Hamilton, with other illustrative and explanatory matter, besides his own not infrequent, but always valuable notes, which are enriched by a most extensive study of his subject. The work in this shape looks far more inviting, and will, no doubt, be vastly more intelligible and interesting to the students for whom it was prepared, as well as to other readers. |