and humanity of Boston. It is a common boast, that her schools and various institutions of beneficence are the best in the world. Let the prison about to be erected share this boast. Let it be the best in the world. Let it be a model prison, not only to our own country, but to other countries. The rule of separation, which we have considered of such importance among the ripe convicts in the Penitentiary, will be of greater necessity still in a prison which will receive, before their trial, both the innocent and the guilty. Each prisoner, from the first moment he is touched by the hand of the law, should be cut off from all association, whether by word or sight, with his fellowprisoners. The State, mindful of his weakness, as his temporary guardian, owes him this protection against temptation, and this means of reformation.

The absolute separation of all prisoners, so that they can neither see, hear nor touch each other, is the pole-star of Prison Discipline. It is the Alpha, or beginning, as the reformation of the offender is the Omega, or the end. It is this principle, when properly administered, which irradiates with heavenly light even the darkness of the dungeon, driving far away the intrusive legion of unclean thoughts, and introducing in their vacant place the purity of religion, the teachings of virtue, the solace of society, and the comfort of hope. In this spirit let us build our prisons. The jail shall no longer be a charnel-house of living men; the cell shall cease to be the tomb, wherein is buried, what is more precious than the body, a human soul. From their iron gates let us erase that doom of despair,

Leave all hope behind, who enter here;

and inscribe other words of gentleness, of encouragement, of hope.

C. S.

NOTE TO ARTICLE IV.

SINCE this article was printed, and just as our number was closing, another book has been announced as in the press, which would have come within the range of our remarks. It is called the "Service Book for the Church of

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the Saviour; with a Collection of Psalms and Hymns." A particular notice of it would further illustrate some of the points, on which we have been led to speak. But for this we have no room. Its ritual part contains greater variety than we have seen in any preceding work of the kind. There are fifteen short Services for morning or evening worship; and to the Selections from the Psalms are added Selections from other portions of the Scriptures. These last are gathered as they could be found suitable, without reference to their original connexions, and arranged so as to be read responsively. An increasing tendency thus seems to be shown in our denomination towards written forms of conducting the devotions of the church. The Hymns are but another edition of Dr. Greenwood's, with a supplement of 116 new pieces. We are not sure that the greater part of these additional hymns would have been our own choice; but that is a matter, on which we do not feel ourselves called to enlarge. The compiler is Rev. R. C. Waterston, pastor of the "Church of the Saviour," whose name will go far to recommend his preferences. We heartily wish, that the church which is now building for the use of his society, and into which this Collection is to be introduced, may be carried up strong and beautiful to its top-stone, and entered prosperously, and consecrated to a long blessing, in due time.

May we be allowed, in closing, to say a single word of a lighter character? We have spoken of this church as now building." We do not say, that it is "in course of construction," or "in progress of erection," or "in process of completion," or "being built." This is because we are content with our paternal English tongue. If any should ask us what it is building, we shall, like Queen Elizabeth on another occasion, "leave them answerless."

N. L. F.

NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

Introductory Lectures on Modern History, delivered in the Lent Term, 1842; with the Inaugural Lecture, delivered in December, 1841. By THOMAS ARNOLD, D. D., Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford, and Head Master of Rugby School. Edited from the Second London Edition, with a Preface and Notes, by HENRY REED, A. M., Professor of English Literature in the University of Pennsylvania. New York. 1845. 12mo.

pp. 428. DR. ARNOLD's reputation as a classical scholar was established in an eminent degree by his edition of Thucydides, accompanied by critical notes and disquisitions in the English language; and this reputation has been confirmed and enlarged by that portion of his "History of Rome," which he lived to complete. These writings, together with those which have appeared since his death, exhibit proofs not only of remarkable scholarship in ancient learning, but of a mind richly stored with various knowledge, and endowed with a combination of rare and high qualities.

The volume before us consists of eight Lectures introductory to an extended course which he proposed to deliver on Modern History. The author defines history to be "the biography of a society." He adds, "it does not appear to me to be history at all, but simply biography, unless it finds in the persons who are its subject something of a common purpose, the accomplishment of which is the object of their life. History is to the common life of many, what biography is to the life of an individual." Upon this idea he builds the scheme of his lectures, and unfolds the relations and traces the progress of society by examples, drawn from the conduct of men as marked by the principles of human nature, and exhibited under the various forms of political and social bodies. This is done in a manner perfectly simple and direct, without any parade of novel theories, or any of those vagaries of abstraction and speculation, which, by a false use of language, have been called the philosophy of history. With a lively imagination, and quick powers of thought, Dr. Arnold's mind was eminently practical; his style is flowing, animated, and energetic, sometimes ornate, always perspicuous; his illustrations are numerous and well applied. His remarks on the methods of studying history, the knowledge requisite for that study, and the objects to be attained by it, are peculiarly interesting and valuable. By way of explaining his views, he touches at considerable length on some of the prominent events of modern European history;

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showing throughout an independent spirit, untrammelled by prejudices or local predilections, a heart open to generous impulses, and a mind elevated and enlightened by an expansive toleration. These qualities are conspicuous in the lectures on the questions relating to the Church in England, and on the condition of that country after the Revolution. The intricate question of the credibility of history is ably examined in a lecture on that subject.

Professor Reed's notes constitute a valuable addition to the original work. Many of them are selected from Dr. Arnold's other writings, in which he explains more at large some of the opinions advanced in the Lectures. Occasionally likewise the editor enters with learning and ability into original discussions, with the view of illustrating the author's positions.

S.

Grammar of the Chaldee Language, as contained in the Bible and Targums. By DR. GEORGE B. WINER, Professor of Theology, etc. in the University of Leipsic. Translated from the German, by H. B. HACKETT, Professor of Biblical Literature in Newton Theological Institution. Andover. 1845. 8vo. pp. 152.

A PERSON tolerably well acquainted with Hebrew is prepared for an easy acquisition of the related dialects. The Chaldee alphabet is the same as the Hebrew; the vocabulary is so to a considerable extent, aud the grammatical forms have the same general character; so that the student, with no great pains, may proceed from his reading of the rest of the Old Testament to those chapters in Daniel and Ezra which are written in Chaldee, and thence, if his curiosity takes such a direction, to a perusal of the Chaldee Targums or versions of the Hebrew books. Syriac is so like Chaldee, that some Grammars present the forms of the two side by side. It is almost the same language in a different alphabetical character; and a second step, still easier than the first, enables the student to read a version of the New Testament which takes rank of all others in respect to merit as well as time, and which has the peculiar attraction of presenting the discourses of our Lord and his Apostles in substantially the same dialect as that in which they were originally uttered. Thus furnished, the student's further progress is exceedingly easy to the Samaritan, which opens the knowledge of another ancient version, and to the Talmudical and Rabbinical dialects, of which the whole basis is Chaldee. If he proposes to form some acquaintance with the Arabic translations, a more serious task is presented, but still one which his previous labors will have materially lightened.

Professor Hackett translates from Winer's Grammar published in 1842, a work greatly extended from his first edition of nearly twenty years before. We cannot say we like it the better for that. In its primitive state, it was, in our judgment, a very dull and repulsive specimen of German book-making. There is no mystery about these languages. In every particular, except the lexicographical difficulty attaching to words which occur but seldom, they are very easily mastered. It is the exceeding heaviness and cumbrousness of the grammatical apparatus furnished to learners, which makes them so awful. Professor Stuart, who studies a subject while he writes upon it for the public, kept on condensing his Hebrew Grammar edition after edition, and each compression was a material improvement, and a great deal more compression would still enhance its value. With good tables of the Chaldee forms, and fifteen or twenty pages at most, of explanation of the principal differences between them and the Hebrew, a student of fair intelligence, and with a good knowledge of the latter tongue, would, we think, read well the Biblical Chaldee, in about half the time that would be required for a careful perusal of Dr. Winer's Grammar. And he would have had very agreeable and useful, instead of very odious and unprofitable employment. Of the making of books there is absolutely no end, if writers set out to inflict all their manuscript collections and all their tediousness upon the reader. But grown men are not best served by any books, certainly not by Grammars, upon that model.

Still, for a person who has no taste but for Chaldee, nor any other occupation for his life, the study of Winer's Grammar, in so faithful a manner as to become possessed of all the exceptions, and verify them by an examination of all the references, and glance at all the books therein cited, and strike the balance between the opposite opinions of erudite critics on the various weighty matters therein mooted, will furnish interesting employment, which will hold out to his fullest wish and his latest day. At all events the zeal for Oriental literature, which has carried Professor Hackett through the work of such a translation, is highly creditable; and this patient, scholarly enthusiasm, together with the knowledge which he has acquired in the process, and which he exhibits in its result, is an agreeable earnest that he will engage the attention of his pupils, and ensure their proficiency, in this important class of studies. It is not for us to advise; but we heartily wish, that, accomplished as he has now made and shown himself in this department of knowledge, and able to select from the heap what a learner wishes to know, he would turn his attention to the composition of a Manual of his own, within a much smaller compass.