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advent of its illustrious Founder, by a political fusing of the nations, and placing Cæsar Augustus on the throne of the civilized world! Since the day of the crucifixion and the scattering abroad of Christ's disciples to preach the gospel throughout the Roman empire, that gospel has been the grand disturbing and transforming force among the nations, and Christ the stone on which all that has fallen has been broken. You may read in characters just as distinct on the page of history, if you will, as in the prophetic roll "For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish." The writer of history must not be merely a narrator of facts in the order of their occurrence, however accurate in detail and elegant in style. He must seize upon the events which give character to an age; must portray the men who shape the destinies of nations, and must grasp them so as to make them the prominent objects on which the broad lights and shadows of great pictures fall. This has evidently been the aim of the author of the work before us, and we think he has succeeded in a remarkable degree. We are acquainted with no work which we consider so well fitted to the design. It is a compend of history, for the High School and the University, and in the hands of a coinpetent teacher it can hardly fail to wake up in the minds of intelligent pupils a life-long interest in the wide and rich domain of historical research. Mr. Willson speaks very modestly of his "Outlines of the Philosophy of History." Yet we are persuaded that the student will find this part of the work of exceeding interest and value. The maps, eighteen in number, with brief descriptive letter press, will be found a very special convenience, as who does not find his knowledge of geography continually fading out. As a comprehensive and convenient book of reference the volume will be found worthy of a place in the library of the scholar.

13.-Truth in Love. Sermons by the late Rev. Josiah D. Smith, D. D., Pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church, Columbus, Ohio. With a Biographical Preface by the Rev. JAMES M. PLATT, and an Introduction by M. W. JACOBUS, D. D., Professor in the Western Theological Seminary. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication.

WE are much pleased with these sermons. They are discriminating, direct, tender, earnest, reverent and thoroughly evangelical. Dr. Smith was eminently a workman that needed not to be ashamed. The Biographical Preface adds much to the interest of the volume. He died in 1863, before the completion of his 48th year, and his death caused great lamentation.

14.-History of the Peace. Being a History of England from 1816 to 1854. With an Introduction 1800 to 1815. By HARRIET MARTINEAU. Vols. I and II. pp. 455, 500. Boston: Walker, Wise & Co. 1864.

A GOOD book to read in these dark and troublous times, fitted to excite courage and hope. It shows us how out of confusions and storms, revolutions and counter revolutions, the ambition of tyrants and the carnage of war, the crumbling of thrones and the overthrow of kingdoms, the derangement of currency and trade and distress of the people, cabinets made and unmade with more than the rapidity of the changing moon, conspiracies, cabals, factions, riots, terror, men's hearts failing them for fear, the sea and the waves roaringhow, out of all this, God has brought order and peace and prosperity, turning the shadow of death into the morning. Miss Martineau wields a strong pen, and has delineated with graphic force the great events of England's history in the first years of the present century. The illustrious statesmen of the period, Pitt, Fox, Canning, etc., with the then great captains Nelson, Napoleon and Wellington, are sketched, if not with the fascinating pencil of Macaulay, with, at least, equal discrimination and fairness. That pestilent scourge and meanest, basest of men, George IV., and his hapless, cruelly oppressed Queen, appear at full length, but with the delicate and digni fied reticence in detail and coloring which we should expect from our author. All the matters of internal policy which have stirred the heart of the great English nation since the beginning of the present century are treated with singular accuracy and force; such as Banking, Poor Laws, Free Trade, Parliamentary and Ecclesiastical Reforms, etc.; while Agriculture and Science and Literature and Art receive their share of attention.

The peculiar value of this edition is set forth in the following extract from the Publishers' Note:

"Previous to undertaking the republication of the History of the Peace,' we wrote to Miss Martineau, soliciting from her pen a Preface for this edition. She responded with promptness, not only supplying the desired Preface, and making sundry corrections in the text of the work, but proposing to write, expressly for this edition, an entire new book, containing the History of the Peace down to the Russian War in 1854: making the present work a complete History of England from 1800 to 1854. This offer we gladly accepted. The present publication has, consequently, a value and completeness largely in advance of the English edition."

Of the exquisite beauty of these volumes we cannot speak too

highly. They are on cream laid tinted paper from the Riverside press. We shall wait impatiently for the remaining two volumes.

15.-MISCELLANEOUS. Progress: or The Sequel to Jerry and His Friends. By Alice C. Dodge. 16mo. pp. 342. Boston: American Tract Society, 28 Cornhill. This book is well written, being an account of some very good boys and very intelligent; good and intelligent we should say quite beyond the average of the boys we are accustomed to see, even in intelligent, Christian families. It is a very interesting book for boys to read, but we have grave doubts whether it is the right kind of a book to put into the hands of boys; just because it does not describe good boys as they really are, or as they can reasonably be expected to be. If one half the adult members of a church were as matured in piety and understanding as Jerry and his friends, it would be a wonderful church. Amy Carr or The Fortune Teller. By Caroline Cheesbro. 12mo. pp. 226. New York: M. W. Dodd. 1864. A pleasant tale of a poor foundling, illustrating God's care for the forsaken, and the effect of a sincere piety to fill the humblest scenes with light and cheerfulness. Light on the Ocean. By S. W. Hanks, Corresponding Secretary of the Boston Seamen's Friend Society. Boston: Mass. Sabbath School Society, 13 Cornhill. This very interesting little book contains a variety of incidents and experiences relative to sailors and life at sea, and is exceedingly well fitted to stimulate and encourage Christian efforts for the well-being of a class of men to whom we are under great obligations. Our Birds, by the same Society, is a charming book for boys. Twelve of our common birds are here beautifully presented in their own portraits, and with a kind of biographical story of each. New Stories from an Old Book. 16mo. pp. 216. By the same. The sixteen stories have for a basis some facts in Scripture history and are well told. Stories for the Little Ones. Second Series. By the same. A bound volume of little tracts, attractive and instructive. A Soldier of the Cumberland. Memoir of Mead Holmes, Jr., Sergeant Wisconsin Volunteers. By his Father. With an Introduction by John S. Hart, LL.D. Pro Christo, pro patria. Boston: American Tract Society. Another of the thousands of young heroes whose deaths are purchasing our life, and one of the best of these thrilling histories.

ARTICLE X.

THE ROUND TABLE.

FREE THOUGHT AND SPEECH UNDER PAPACY AND THE JESUITS. In the October number of his Review Mr. Brownson says: "It is possible that this number of our Review may be the last." It is rumored that the Review is suspended by an ex cathedra mandate. The cause of this papal interference with progressive thought and free discussion is suggestive to both Roman Catholics and Protest

ants.

Mr. Brownson has spoken against the Jesuits as an order "not adapted to our age, and especially to our country," and as making adaptation impossible by having moulds of another land and past ages "in which every one entering the Society must be recast."

He has objected to the temporal sovereignty of the pope, as both impolitic, and no necessary tenet of a good papist. As belonging to a mixed system of civil and ecclesiastical government of past ages, he thinks it must be abandoned with the dead past.

He denies the absolute authority of the Fathers on theological questions, discriminating between faith and theology. "Faith is divine, theology is a human science." While the weight of the Fathers is presumptive, it is not conclusive and authoritative for any theological point. As each may only quote his predecessor, and without any original research, the catena patrum may have only the value of the first link, and we be as well able as the first man in the series to judge on the point in question. "Any attempt," he says, "to bend the human mind, thought, or reason, back to the theology of any past age is hostile to the interests alike of religion and civilization." And herein Mr. Brownson arouses all the power of the Jesuits against his Review. Their religious views are a rescript of the medieval times, and their civilization is no farther along in the ages than the cross-bow, portcullis, divine rights for the people through the popes, government without magna charta, and trials without public accusation, defence or jury.

He has also denied the infallibility of the pontifical Congregations, and even of the pope himself. "They have no infallibility, except that of the pope himself, who approves their decisions, and that the pope is infallible is no article of Catholic faith. One may deny his infallibility, and maintain that his definitions are reformable, and yet be a good orthodox Catholic." This certainly is occidental and not

oriental in its letter and spirit, and more so in this passage:

"If

the
pope should give us a command in the civil order we should not
feel bound to obey it, any more than we should feel bound to obey a
command given by our temporal sovereign in the spiritual order."

These and others, quoted and indicated, are bold words, savor-
ing of manhood, individualism and the nineteenth century. We are
not surprised that their continued utterance should be forbidden by
Rome. They jar all along back among the cloisters and skeletons
and fossils, bulls and triple crowns of the papacy. Mr. Brownson
well complains that he is met not by argument but by denunciation.
But with his masterly knowledge of the papacy he should have ex-
pected just this. Mr. Brownson should have foreknown that he
must eventually go under the "iron shears" to be clipped to the
one pattern, quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus, or go under
the anathema sit. We sorrow that a man of such independence of
thought must be silenced. We need more of them, very many, in
all parties in church and state. Speaking of popular opinion Mr.
B.
says: "for which we have and never had much respect." This
is the mistake and the glory of the man, and now he is to die edito-
rially a martyr to his mistake and his glory.

This hostility to Mr. Brownson's progressive and readjusted papacy shows how difficult a thing it is to move Romanism. It has been found exceedingly difficult to slide it up the inclined plane of progress in Europe, though the rising grade was evidently very slight. After being shipped to this country it protests against naturalization; it will not become acclimated; it will not be modernized. It insists on continuing both European and mediæval. Mr. Brownson's strenuous and liberalizing endeavor is a failure. The two parties in that church are both right. One insists that Romanism can not readjust itself and keep up with the times; and the other affirms that it must keep up or perish.

We have a parallel struggle now in the South. Secessia refuses to adapt her civilization and Christianity to modern times. She insists on preserving a section of the dark ages, a sample of feudalism. She rejects all new almanacs, and purposes, with sword in hand, to live by the old one of centuries past; while the North concludes to keep up with the still moving heavens, and get out a new almanac every year adapted to the changes of the times.

We look anxiously to see the issue with Mr. Brownson. If he goes into the Index Expurgatorius he will go into a goodly company, and like the great Bellarmine he may be taken out by a succeeding pope. Perhaps it is presumptuous in us to commend him to the study

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