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as it may, her philosophy of sorrow is both beautiful and true. If it lacks somewhat in definiteness of outline, it almost conceals this by its depth and brilliancy of colouring; and few pictures have been painted of more saintly beauty than that of Mary after she has heard of the death of her cousin. Would that all our novelists taught thus the purifying power of

sorrow!

She

The theology of the tale will, we think, be deemed far less satisfactory. A paragraph at the close of one of the chapters in "Dred," had long ago prepared us for what we find in "The Minister's Wooing." We do not assert that Mrs. Stowe has really adopted the creed of Universalism, but we cannot help thinking that her influence is stretching in that direction. How otherwise are we to interpret such a passage as this? "Could Christ be happy, if those who were one with Him were sinful and accursed? And could Christ's own loved ones be happy, when those with whom they have exchanged being, in whom they live and feel, are wandering stars, for whom is reserved the mist of darkness for ever? had been taught that the agonies of the lost would be for ever in sight of the saints, without abating in the least their eternal joys; nay, that they would find in it increasing motives to praise and adoration. Could it be so? Would the last act of the great Bridegroom of the Church be to strike from the heart of his purified Bride those yearnings of selfdevoting love which his whole example had taught her, and in which she reflected, as in a glass, His own nature? If not, is there not some provision by which those roots of deathless love which Christ's betrothed ones strike into other hearts shall have a divine, redeeming power? Question vital as life-blood to ten thousand hearts,-fathers, mothers, wives, husbands,—to all who feel the infinite sacredness of love!"

We can sympathise very deeply

with the spirit which prompts such utterances as these. The question of eternal punishment is one to be approached with trembling and tears. To speak with glib tongue and unmoved heart on so terrible a theme as this, seems infinitely worse than to declaim hysterically against it. We are not disposed to find fault with the spirit in which Mrs. Stowe approaches this subject, but we deprecate its discussion when it is only very imperfectly investigated, and the feelings are roused to precipitate the judgment. The moral law is not framed according to our likes and dislikes, neither are the facts of this world or the world to come. Appeals to the feelings of readers who have never viewed the subject from different points, can only lead to the hasty adoption of an immature opinion, and to the weakening of that salutary awe which the doctrine of the eternity of future punishment is so calculated to produce. A great hope and a great fear seem to be the pillars upon which the edifice of society rests, and we can scarcely look on with indifference, whilst we see any one hewing down one of them as unnecessary, or suggesting that it may safely be removed.

It is but fair to add that our authoress suggests through one of her characters, that the old doctrine is, after all, the true one. She writes, "Storms, earthquakes, volcanoes, sickness, death, go on without regarding us. Everywhere I see the most hopeless, unrelieved suffering,-and for aught I see, it may be eternal.

The doctor's dreadful system, is, I confess, much like the laws of Nature, about what one may reason out from them." But as we have said before, a theme so profoundly important should not be meddled with, unless all the arguments are used which can be placed in either scale of the discussion. A doctrine, however fearful, which like some ancient manuscript has been an heirloom of the church for centuries, and whose leaves have rustled through the

fingers, and been blotted by the tears of an innumerable succession of the wise and the good, must not be hurriedly committed to the flames as a worthless forgery.

THE FACTS AND LAWS OF LIFE; Being an Introductory Lecture delivered at the Opening of the Medical School of the Westminster Hospital, on October 3rd, 1859. By J. Russell Reynolds, M.D., F.R.C.P., &c. London: J. Churchill.

DR. RUSSELL REYNOLDS is known to our medical readers as the author of several pathological works of great ability. His discourse on "Vertigo," and his great work entitled "Diagnosis of Diseases of the Brain and Spinal Cord," have quite a standard reputation. The present lecture, as may be gathered from its title, was addressed to a wider circle, is of a more popular class, and is further characterised by singular force and eloquence.

As the subject chosen by Dr. Reynolds for his address was "The Facts and the Laws of Life," he found opportunity for saying wisely, clearly, boldly, and religiously, some grand and needful things about life itselfabout the empire of science, the nature of fact, and the meaning of discovered law. He discriminates things that are often confounded, both with facts and laws, not only by medical students, but by empanelled juries, by learned advocates, and by students of physical science. "Facts" are distinguished from "fancies," "hypotheses," " opinions," and "fractions of facts." With considerable skill, he vindicates what may be termed the moral etymo ogy of the word law as applied to the generalizations of science. He repudiates, with something like indignation, the change of nomenclature suggested by Mr. Buckle and others by which the idea of coercion, will, and ulterior purpose, deeper than reason and vaster than nature, would be excluded from our estimate of those aspects of nature which are in fact a synthesis of nature and

man; and with great eloquence, he links the laws of nature with the great Commandments which proclaim God's Own ideal of a perfected humanity.

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Dr. Reynolds draws accurate distinction between laws, and either mere sequence" or "accidental coincidence;" but the principal value and power of the pamphlet seem to us to be contained in the portion of it in which the author points out the danger and even absurdity of confounding statistical results with law. He shows that the law of nature "is true at all magnitudes, times, and distances;" but the so-called statistical law "is only true at such magnitude, time, and distance as shall be sufficient to lose or hide the individual in the multitude." He uses this position, which he does not fail to illustrate copiously as vantage ground on which to contend with the fundamental fallacy of the "History of Civilization in England." Dr. Reynolds shows that Mr. Buckle's repudiation of human will or Divine Providence in human affairs-on the basis of a percentage of suicides being determinable beforehand in a given localityis an egregious petitio principii. The statistical results are shown to be demonstrably untrue, until the accumulation is so great that it includes every possibility of action and every variety of condition. "It is by removing yourself to a great distance from the actual facts that the numerical statement of these facts exhibits uniformity. To the naked eye, the moon's outline is an even curve, there are no inequalities, no changes in its form; but learn the distance, or enlarge your power of vision, and then mountain ranges, valleys, and extinct volcanoes break the line. And so it

is with man. Go far enough from the individual soul; lose his personality in the thousand or ten thousand that surround him, and the net result of this ten thousand and of that, may be the same. But there are in him individual features, heights of aspiration, and depths of despair, angry

passions, and Divine helps; and these seen in the unit, but lost in the many, are the real moving forces, the determining causes of all his action."

It is highly refreshing to greet this outspoken utterance in days when science is treated by so many of its advocates as the rival of religion, and the antagonist of revelation; and we would suggest that Dr. Reynolds might give his able pamphlet a more permanent and enlarged form.

THE LIFE AND LABOURS OF THE REV. DANIEL BAKER, D.D. By his Son, the Rev. W. M. Baker. Third Edition. Philadelphia: W. S. and A. Austin. London Nisbet and Co. 1859.

DR. JAMES BAKER was born at Midway, Liberty County, Georgia, in 1791. He was ordained over his first charge by a Presbytery held in 1818. He published two volumes of sermons, which have had an extensive sale, and have been productive of much good. He preached more frequently, perhaps, than any other man of his time; sustained seven pastoratesall of them successful and prosperous to a remarkable degree. He laboured eight years as an evangelist, enduring great hardships, and displaying right worthy courage, zeal, and self-denial. He was the real founder of Austin College, Texas; was its first president; and obtained no less than one hundred thousand dollars for its funds; and, to crown all else, he is reckoned, with apparent fairness and honesty, to have been the means of conversion to twenty thousand souls! Such a life needs no comments. Assuming its asserted facts, it is its own authentication of its claim to a higher origin than could be found in unassisted nature, to a diviner inspiration than genius could enkindle, and to a nobler emulation than patriotism could prompt or heroism sustain.

The narrative, however, of this life and these labours might have been much better written than we find it. We think it would have gained not

more in correctness than in probable usefulness if its sundry Americanisms had been translated into English, and sundry of its follies exchanged for good sense.

If Sydney Smith had been alive, and had had as strong inducement to make fun of Dr. Baker as he had to ridicule and render contemptible three of the greatest men who ever lived, and who have made Serampore immortal and illustrious, he could have desired nothing more admirably adapted to his purpose than the memoir under notice. For example:-

Dr. Baker "lisps "awful.” -Pp. 28, 213, 216, 244.

Sic!

Dr. Baker thinks his mother tongue would be improved by an infusion of Scotticisms, and therefore insists on a perpetual confounding of would and should, will and shall. -Pp. 28, 29, 33, 36, et passim.

Dr. Baker has "a tolerably (!) humbling sense of his unworthiness, sinfulness, and ingratitude."-P. 60. Dr. Baker loves "evanggelominos preaching."-P. 61.

When on the sea-shore, the learned doctor would entertain his learned leisure by "assuming the authority of Canute," and with the same success. "He also strikes out the novel idea of trying to pin down with his walking cane the waves of the advancing tide, and is reminded by his failure of unsuccessful endeavours to fasten conviction upon sinful hearts."-P. 234.

We should be discourteous to the university which conferred its divinity diploma upon Dr. Baker if we did not assume that his attainments and scholarly accomplishments were such as to justify so honourable an award. And yet we find him writing, "I do wish it were possible to banish all Pagan classics out of our schools and colleges, and instead of Caesar, Ovid, Horace, Homer, &c.”—P. 308. As we do not find that during his six or seven years' presidency over Austin College he ever delivered a single prelection to the students, or occupied any chair whatever, we will hope that the in

mates of that institution have not been doomed to see any part of their late President's aspiration realised.

The following passage by the compiler of this volume, we hope in great charity that we have failed to understand. If such hope is not in accordance with the fact, we can only say that the biographer's notions of honour and decency are very different from ours. Let our readers mark that Austin College was the first institution of the kind in the whole country, that it had received warm and practical encouragement and support from the first men of the State; and that there was a well-grounded expectation of a vote of funds from the Texan Legislature. Yet, the author writes:-"As to his (Dr. Baker's) efforts for the College during his six tours, we have seen how he toiled, and how he succeeded. Six tours to beg for the College out of the State! He became more and more reluctant to beg in this way. It was very well when he first began. Texas was then small in population, and indefinitely deep in debt; but when that population so swiftly doubled itself, when that debt disappeared, leaving Texas with millions in its chest for present use, and incalculable resources for the future, with the steward in Scripture, it was his feeling, to beg I am ashamed.' "Two resources were left him; one was a visit to England, Ireland, and Scotland; and he felt confident, &c. &c." -P. 537.

Equally confident are we, but of a very different thing, namely, that when the College was looked upon as almost a national institution, and when there was the strongest hope of endowment, or subscription from a State, as such, with millions of ready money waiting to be used, and with the moral certainty of indefinite increase, it would have been unpardonably audacious and insolent to have resorted to the alternative proposed.

One word more as to our preceding references and quotations. It is to suggest to the filial piety and good

sense of the compiler of this volume, that the exposing of these instances of his revered father's weakness, or errors, has no excuse; was not essential even to perfectness of portraiture; and is, beyond all controversy, out of place, and offensive in a book which, by the bold avowal of its author, is designed for the highest Christian usefulness, and to contribute to the growth of men and ministers as truly consecrated and disinterested as he in whose real life these errors had no discoverable practical effect.

PILGRIMAGE FROM THE ALPS TO THE TIBER; OR, THE INFLUENCE OF ROMAN ISM ON TRADE, JUSTICE, AND KNOWLEDGE. By Rev. J. A. Wylie, LL.D., Edinburgh: Shepherd and Elliott.

THOUGH the visit to Italy, of which this book is a record, dates as far back as 1851, we are glad to welcome a second edition of it, and to avail ourselves of it, that we may evolve a few points of comparison between the impressions and forecastings of 1851 and the realisations of 1859.

We naturally look with especial interest upon what Dr. Wylie has to tell us about Piedmont-that ark of Italian liberty in the black deluge of its despotism. He found it in a state of nascent constitutionalism, and with equal piety and philosophy, he attributes its happy anomaly to the presence and prayers of its Waldensian subjects. These furnish both a natural and moral reason. Seeds of liberty, especially when sown in religious forms and watered with the tears of pious men, have a silent and permeating life in them, and often produce their fruit in forms and places that are wholly unexpected. What Puritanism has been to the England of the present, the faith of the Vaudois may be to the Italy of the future; and heartily we pray that it may. The Piedmontese themselves speak of their constitutionalism as a miracle-the death of Charles Albert making way for a new and plastic sove

passions, and Divine helps; and these seen in the unit, but lost in the many, are the real moving forces, the determining causes of all his action."

It is highly refreshing to greet this outspoken utterance in days when science is treated by so many of its advocates as the rival of religion, and the antagonist of revelation; and we would suggest that Dr. Reynolds might give his able pamphlet a more permanent and enlarged form.

THE LIFE AND LABOURS OF THE REV. DANIEL BAKER, D.D. By his Son, the Rev. W. M. Baker. Third Edition. Philadelphia: W. S. and A. Austin. London: Nisbet and Co. 1859.

DR. JAMES BAKER was born at Midway, Liberty County, Georgia, in 1791. He was ordained over his first charge by a Presbytery held in 1818. He published two volumes of sermons, which have had an extensive sale, and have been productive of much good. He preached more frequently, perhaps, than any other man of his time; sustained seven pastorates all of them successful and prosperous to a remarkable degree. He laboured eight years as an evangelist, enduring great hardships, and displaying right worthy courage, zeal, and self-denial. He was the real founder of Austin College, Texas; was its first president, and obtained no less than one hundred thousand dollars for its funds; and, to crown all else, he is reckoned, with apparent fairness and honesty, to have been the meris of conversion to twenty thousand souls! Such a life needs no comments. suming its asserted facts, it is its own authentication of its claim to a higher origin than could be found in unassisted nature, to a diviner inspiration than genius could enkindle, and to a nobler emulation than patriotism could prompt or heroism sust on.

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When on the sea-shore, the I. doctor would entertain his ! leisure by "assuming the acặ Canute," and with the sat "He also strikes out the 1. trying to pin down with ins y cane the waves of the adve and is reminded by his f successful endeavours to fit. viction upon sinful hearts.” –

We should be discourtesias university which conterred diploma upon Dr. Baker if a assume that his attain scholarly accomplishments w. as to justify so honoarabl. And yet we find him writ.n. wish it were possible to Pá ̧m cla sies out of our elles, and instead of C Horace, Homer, &c." - P.

do not find that during h yea pidency over A he ever delivered a single pr the students, or occupied whatever, we will hope that th

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