Christ. Usefulness' meant success in converting the ungodly; the sanctification of those who already believed seemed a very inferior matter. The doctrines which must be constantly preached are those which are likely to startle the conscience of the sinner, and to lead in faith to Christ; to 'leave the first principles of the Gospel of Christ, and to go on unto perfection,' was to be unfaithful to the first great duty of an Evangelical Preacher. A benevolent care for the temporal wants of men had been made too often a substitute for spiritual religion; and, moreover, the greatest temporal miseries were utterly insignificant compared with men's spiritual necessities, and so all thought and effort were naturally devoted to work which was distinctly directed to the recovery of 'sinners from the error of their ways.

"But it may be most fairly urged that sicne, in these days, the most earnest members of his great party are not too absorbed in spiritual thought to care for their own physical health and comfort - they have no right to claim absolution from the duty of promoting the physical health and comfort of others. If in their vehement zeal for the salvation of men they become indifferent to the splendour of their own houses, the abundance of their own tables, their personal ease and their personal health, we might admire and almost approve their too general indifference to the great charities which are intended to relieve the present sufferings of mankind. But now that they have become worldly enough to think of all that concerns their own temporal well-being, they must not say that they are too spiritual to think of the well-being of others. The traditions of a grander age are, however, governing them still; and it is not very easy for them to see that the change in the temperature of their piety requires a change in the adjustment of their activities.

"But you must not imagine that I regard these volumes as wholly and universally evil. There is much in

them which I have read with great delight, and, I trust, with profit. Would to God that Charles Kingsley could live for six months with any one among half-a-dozen of the leaders of the Evangelical party which he so miserably misunderstands. I believe that though his habits of thought are now too firmly set to be wholly reconstructed, he would promptly and candidly acknowledge that up till now he has been wholly ignorant of the real spirit and principles of those whom he has so violently abused.

"I think you have never been into North Devon, and may not therefore enjoy as heartily as I have the paper from Fraser (1849) which appears in the second of these two volumes, but which I do not remember reading before, entitled "North Devon: A Prose Idyll." But read it, and you will thirst for Lyemouth, Exmoor, and Clovelly. Did I tell you when we met a month or two ago that during my summer rambles I saw Charles Kingsley's early home? I believe that a day or two in that lovely region is one of the best possible commentaries on all the literary qualities of his writings. A strange, wild, beautiful place is Clovelly. It lies on the North Devon Coast, about eleven or twelve miles west of Bideford, and the whole country round is rich in association with the grandest periods of our national life. "Westward Ho" has made us all familiar with the adventurous spirit of the Bideford people in the old days; and it is a pleasant thing to wander about the streets of the good old town and lean over its famous bridge with thoughts of all that has sprung out of the spirit and daring of its ancient inhabitants. And here, not long ago, Froude and Kingsley worked together, the one at his history, and the other at the fiction which has shed such a glory on Bideford itself and all the good county of Devon. Not far from Bideford lies Torrington, where John Howe walked with God and held high converse with the spirits of just men made perfect in

the blessedness of the righteous. Murray's Guide, a capital book for most practical purposes, vouchsafes the following information about him : 'John Howe, a Dissenting minister of some celebrity, (!) b. 1630, lived for several years at Torrington. Whilst residing here, a curious coincidence occurred. A fire broke out in his house, but it was providentially extinguished by a sudden fall of rain. On the evening of the same day he received a letter, which concluded with this remarkable prayer-May the dew of heaven be upon your dwelling!' This is all that John Murray, of Albemarle-street, thought it necessary to say of John Howe, the prince of English theologians. The author of the 'Living Temple' was a Dissenting minister of some celebrity.' We should rather think he was. We wonder whether Mr. Murray's 'Handbook for London' informs his readers that at Apsley-house, there lived the Duke of Wellington, an officer in the English army who won some reputation in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, and was remarkable for the shortness of his notes and the length of his nose.

"The road from Bideford to Torrington follows the Torridge (who has forgotten the sweet Rose of Torridge?). The road to Clovelly runs near the sea.

"Clovelly itself, where Charles Kingsley spent his boyhood, is a fishing town-or, perhaps, I might call it a fishing village-rooted rather than built on precipitous rocks. Most luxuriant foliage gathers round it from the top of the cliff down to the very water's edge, and it seems altogether a place for creatures with wings rather than common men and women who have to go along upon a pair of legs. The road is literally a pebbled flight of stairs, and the perpendicular descent from the Holly to the Pier can scarcely be less than 500 feet. The houses, most of them, seem to have been built to stand a siege, the walls are so thick and strong. Mr. Kingsley's father was incumbent

of the church for many years; and some of the old fishermen remember Master Charley very well, and told me he used to be a great hand at going out with the boats. They seemed to cherish a very kindly remembrance of him, but had a very faint idea of the greatness and fame to which he has risen.

"One had only to look round on the magnificent cliff and ocean scenery, and to chat with the men that hung about the little pier, to discover the external influences which have helped to give form and colour to Kingsley's mind. His enthusiastic admiration of natural sceneryhis love of physical robustness and daring-his free, hearty way of thinking and talking-must have been greatly cherished by the queer, wild life at Clovelly. The passion he has for natural history came, I think, from another quarter. If I mistake not, he was a pupil for some time of Mr. Johns, of Helstone, whose admirable little book called A Week at the Lizard' is the best guide-book for that interesting district, and contains abundant evidence that it would scarcely be possible for a bright, ardent boy to be with him even for a month without getting a wonderful liking for birds, beasts, and fishes.

"I am, faithfully yours, "BERNARD."

TRUE WOMANHOOD. Memorials of Eliza Hessel. By Joshua Priestly. Second Edition: Hamilton, Adams, and Co.

WE can promise our friends that they will read this book through with great interest. We have here a landscape of beautiful real life which makes lasting memories on us as we pass through it.

The character of Miss Hessel well illustrates the title which the author has chosen for his work. Heretofore we have been wont to meet with "young ladies" who "finish their education." What is meant by "education" in these cases it would be hard to tell. We have our own con

viction, however, that the "finished" result is often worth very little. Eliza Hessel was moulded in the high school of home. Her nature was artless, feminine, and domestic, and excellently trained in household duties. She thus fell into none of the grand affectations which so commonly make young women ridiculous. Her soul was a growth of simplicity, good sense, poetry, and strong natural affections. In one of her letters she says, "I detest the word 'intellectual' as applied to a woman." And yet, far removed from the prating egotism of a blue-stocking, she nevertheless toiled with unusual resolution in many paths of general knowledge and literature. Some will judge that she read too much; and certainly reading may be enlarged at the expense of thinking. The aim should doubtless be to discipline while we enrich the mind.

Above all, the Christian life, in this instance of it, was a genuine consciousness, and a clear example, wrought in her through many conflicts, by a deep faith in the Saviour, and a steadfast adherence to the Word of God. And let all who may be tried in the same way be thus assured of finding the same consolation.

We can thoroughly recommend the "Memorials," and believe they will have a wide circulation. In this second edition the woodcut in the vignette has been replaced with a steel engraving.

THROUGH NORWAY WITH A KNAPSACK. By Mr. Mattien Williams. Smith, Elder, and Co., London.

MR. WILLIAMS is a sensible man, and that is a great point in anybody who undertakes to write a book. He contrives, without telling the reader every little detail that cannot interest him, and without compressing his matter into the rigid mould of a guidebook, to make himself a very agreeable, entertaining, and intelligent companion through the district he has

lately traversed. His descriptions of scenery are natural; and though his enjoyment of it is evidently intense, he has the good sense and good taste to avoid those transcendental raptures which add nothing to the information of the reader, and make the author look ridiculous.

Mr. Williams's tour was in many respects the same as Professor Forbes's. Starting from Christiana, he walked along the high road over the Doffrejeld to Drontheim; thence went by steamer north, almost as far as the North Cape, calling in at the fiords and islands along the coast, traversing the scene of the fabulous Maelström, and passing into the Arctic circle, and the region of midnight noon; came southward again by a returning steamer, and landed at Drontheim; and thence wound his way over mountain and valley, by fiord and river, back to Christiana, his original starting point. The scenery among the Lofodden Islands, especially in Junk, before the snow is yet melted from the lofty cliffs, among which the vessel winds in narrow channels, looking ever like little land-locked lakes, is described by Mr. Williams and by Professor Forbes in terms which tantalise you that you only fancy, and cannot see it. The Romsdal, too, the glenco of Norway, which Mr. Williams visited, has a fascination which it seems difficult to resist. But will nobody step in to save the life of that poor creature the Maelström? Who that read in his boyhood of a roaring whirling abyss of waters, sucking in everything which approached it-who that pictured the devouring monster, lashed into fury by the storm, gulfing whales at a mouthful, and swallowing whole navies without the smallest inconvenience, can hear without pity of the miserable fallen condition in which it is now compelled to live? Every traveller of late years has had a sly hit at the expiring monster; but Mr. Williams seems savagely resolved to give it the last kick. He certainly kicks pretty hard, assuring the public

that the said awful gulf might in ordinary states of the wind and tide be safely navigated in a cock-boat. This is adding insult to injury. The myth dies, and is buried in ignominy as an impostor. Alas for all our old dreams!

On scientific subjects, which frequently arise during the course of his rambles, Mr. Williams gives generally opinions which at least strike one for their good sense. A slight tendency to combativeness, especially on the subject of education, where he has strong opinions of a sternly utilitarian character, is frequently traceable; but on all subjects, except education, his views are at least plausible, and well sustained by facts. His theory of the cause of the mirage is ingenious, and is so strictly in accordance with well known optical laws that we have little hesitation in adopting it as true. On the whole, we have great pleasure and great confidence in recommending this little work to the attention of our readers. If they mean to travel in the district, it will give them a good idea of the scenery and manners of the people without travelling.

THE TWO HOMES. By William Matthews. Three vols. London: Smith, Elder, and Co.

THIS novel we shall not characterise, only repeat what all the world knows, that the firm which publishes it is on the look-out for merit in this department of literature, and that novels as well as human beings are dividable into the classes of better and worse. It is a kind of oracular puzzle. We shall present our readers simply with one or two of the running titles of the book, without hinting further at its plot, or pronouncing on its merits, that those who are so disposed may exercise their constructive faculty in making out a story from these data; and that those who like their pleasures to come to them without effort may order the tale from the library.

It will be observed, then, from

"The

certain items in the short-hand summary of matter which tops the pages of "The Two Homes," such as "Mr. Graham Jumps to a Happy Conclusion"-" Minnie being Drawn Out" "Nervousness the Remedy". "Our First Pony". “Tally-ho" "Cub Hunting-Dear Little Minnie' "Criticism on Riding" American and English Races" 'Mrs. Graham Fences," &c., &c.; that the two homes of our novels are two stables; that the proper names are those of quadrupeds, not bipeds; and that the novel scents of the turf and training ground, Epsom and Newmarket, hunting lodge and steeple chase, rather than of interests more exclusively human. Whether Nimrod or Harry Hieover constructing the novel in this sense from our pregnant hint would not make a better story of it is not for us to say. Such an event lies in the far-off region of possibilities, and there for the present we must leave it,trusting that the gratitude of our readers will attend the efforts just now made for their illumination at once by this not-multitudinous summary of topics in the picture be fore us, and by the clue we furnish to its prevailing character.

POEMS, by Lieutenant-Colonel William Read. London: Smith, Elder, and Co.

1859.

WE know not that we can give higher or juster praise to this neatly got-up volume than by saying that its gallant author has not miscalled it. We have met with an occasional bad rhyme, with some 'conceits' we scarcely like, but with many things truly beautiful, and which only a poet could create.

CHRISTIAN GOVERNMENT AND CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN INDIA. By AntiCaste.

A good little book by an able writer, laying open the rights and wrongs of the whole question of which it treats. It is full of information, presented in a clear manner.