son has enjoyed a peculiar advantage from being in communication with his author, who has examined the version sheet by sheet, making the suggestions and corrections which seemed to him desirable. The reader of this book may feel a confidence seldom allowed to the readers of translations, that he has before him the true intent and actual meaning of the foreign author.

MR. HENRY CRABB ROBINSON'S "DIARY,"* etc., etc., is not equal in interest to Boswell's Life of Johnson, but it deserves to be ranked with it for its importance as a contribution to the History of Literature, and of literary men. Mr. Robinson was not a Boswell in his exclusive and long continued devotion to a single hero, but with many qualities vastly higher and nobler than his, he resembled him in the strong and self-forgetting interest which he felt for a succession of heroes; beginning with Goethe and ending with F. W. Robertson. This series extended over a long succession of years, from before 1790 to 1866. The temperament of Robinson was the reverse of the nil admirari. On the contrary, he carried his amiable interest in distinguished men, especially in men distinguished in literature, to an almost childish extreme. Being by good or bad fortune born a dissenter, he was shut out from the University life, and the University studies of England, but as a compensation he went to Germany in 1800, when it was comparatively rare for an Englishman to think of the German language or of German literature at all, and when the rising suns of German genius had scarcely sent a ray of their brightness to the self-occupied and the self-satisfied little island, which was then absorbed in putting down Napoleonism and upholding British supremacy. In Germany he spent more than five years, became acquainted apparently with everybody who was worth knowing, including Madame de Stael, then in quasi exile from Paris; was on somewhat familiar terms with Goethe, and returned home in 1805 to be stared at somewhat as a visitant from the moon or Timbuctoo.

He was for a while established as a writer and foreign editor for the London Times, and finally entered upon the practice of the law as Barrister. Directly upon his return he resumed his

• Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson, Barrister at Law, F. S. A. Selected and edited by THOMAS SAPLER, Ph. D. In two volumes. Boston: Fields, Osgood, & Co. 1870.

acquaintance with the literary men of England who had become famous or who were just rising into notice, and established himself on a more or less intimate footing with very many of the most distinguished. Coleridge he knew intimately. In the family of Charles Lamb he was a frequent visitant, and a trusted and loving friend. With Southey he was a frequent correspondent. With Edward Irving and Basil Montague he associated freely. To Samuel Rogers' breakfasts he was a never to be omitted guest. To Walter Savage Landor he cleaved with unshaken constancy, and was one of the few whom Landor trusted when he distrusted all the world beside. Wordsworth, however, was the magnus Apollo of the later half of Robinson's life. He early gave in his adhesion to his theory of poetry; he was his staunch defender on all occasions, and in all societies; he was admitted to the most unreserved familiarity at his house. For many years before the death of the Poet, he made a Christmas visit at Rydal, and was one of the warmest and sincerest mourners at the Poet's death.

His relations to the Political and Religious development of his time were intimate and most interesting. He was from the first a Liberal in Politics, and associated with the better class of leaders in every description of political and social progress and reform. He was one of the foremost among the founders, and among the most liberal and devoted of the friends, of the London University and of University College. His religious and theological opinions were singularly unsettled from the first, and remained vacillating to the last. From being almost a follower of Godwin, he came at last to be a Broad-churchman of the type of Robertson and sympathized most warmly with the theologians and religionists of his school. From the beginning to the end of his life, Robinson was cheery, sympathizing, gentle, hopeful, and earnest, and yet, as it would seem, ever driven by the genius of unrest.

This long-lived man, who knew everybody, and was interested in everybody and in everything, kept a diary with great minuteness, wrote an abundance of long letters, and recorded in a familiar way his Reminiscences of the more important events and personages whom he had seen. From these materials, these volumes were selected and are very judiciously edited. They are an invaluable and most suggestive record of the literary, political, religious, and personal history of three-fourths of a century, during one of the most fruitful periods which the world has ever seen. As such they will be considered necessary to every library.

BARON BUNSEN'S MEMOIRS* have at last been brought within the reach and the means of many of his admirers, in this second and greatly improved edition. We say greatly improved, because it is so much abridged. The first edition was too bulky to be read with facility or pleasure, containing as it did a vast amount of matter interesting only to special students in respect to his peculiar theories, the political history and changes of Great Britain and Germany, with many trivial family and personal details which might well be spared even by his most devoted admirers. The narrative was heavy and dragging, and the whole impression of the book was one of unwieldiness. We have in its place a condensed biography of one of the most remarkable men of modern times-liberal, cultured, and earnestly Christian, the friend of Niebuhr and Arnold, as well as of everything that was good and true, having faith in progress in Science, Theology, and Politics, and not doubting in the least that Christianity is the friend of progress, and would in its turn be befriended thereby.

As a scholar, Bunsen was a model for his diligence, his enterprise, and his manysidedness. His learning was not always the most exact, but for breadth and activity he was an example worthy of admiration. As a statesman he was honest, open, and nobly true to his faith in honor and duty and in patriotic zeal. Though the cherished friend of his King, he dared to dissent from his policy in church and state at critical moments to both, and to be true to his own convictions at the peril of the loss of his place and of the confidence of his cherished royal friend. As a Christian he ever bore nearest to his heart the honor of Christ and the prosperity of His Church; but he believed that science and truth were the servants of both, and should be liberally and boldly followed, without fear of apparent consequences. He compiled a book of hymns for the service of public worship, and for years labored at his Bibelwerk, in the faith that the Scriptures might be so expounded as not to be an offense to scholars and cultivated One does not need to accept his interpretations to admire the spirit in which he conceived them, nor need we be insensible to

men.

* Memoirs of Baron Bunsen, late Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary of his Majesty Frederick William IV., at the Court of St. James. Drawn chiefly from Family Papers, by his widow, FRANCES BARONESS BUNSEN. Second Edition. Abridged and Corrected. In Two Volumes. (12mo.) Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1869.

some striking weaknesses in Bunsen's mind and character in order to love and admire his manifold excellencies, his beautiful life, and to more than admire his beautiful Christian death.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF COURT-PREACHER KRUMMACHER* is given to the public in an English translation-almost within twelve months of his death. It is a life in which many American readers will naturally feel a strong interest from their knowl edge of the author and subject of it through his Elijah the Tishbite, and many other well known volumes. The reader who is attracted to it from his interest in the author, will find an additional interest awakened from the fullness and variety of information which it contains concerning many important matters pertaining to the religious history of Germany for the last half century. The scene shifts from Halle to Jena, from Jena to Frankfort on the Maine, from Frankfort to Ruhrort, from Ruhrort to the Wupperthal, the place of a very decided and strongly marked religious activity, from Elberfeldt to Berlin and Potsdam, where Krummacher died. In connection with his residence in each of these places, the author gives lively sketches of the social and religious condition of the community, and of the most distinguished personages with whom he came into contact. For these reasons his biography is as truly a sketch of his times as it is of the incidents of his own life, and his portraitures are almost as full and vivid of some of his contemporaries as the one which he sketches of himself. Thus, in connection with his University studies at Halle, he gives his lively recollections of Niemeyer, Wegscheider, Gesenius, DeWette, and Knapp, at the time when Knapp was the only champion of the Gospel against the current Rationalism. His residence at Jena suggests his recollections of Fries and Schott, and the memorable Wartburg festival of 1817. Frankfort on the Maine recalls full notices of many distinguished preachers whose names are scarcely known in this country. His pastorates in Ruhrort and the Wupperthal open to us a view of the peculiar religious life which for so many years has distinguished that portion of Germany. His residence in Berlin gives occasion to very lively and lifelike sketches of the preachers with whom he

* Fredrich Wilhelm Krummacher: An Autobiography. Edited by his daughter. Translated by Rev. M. G. EASTON, A. M. With a Preface by Professor CAIRUS, D. D., of Berwick. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers. 1869.

was associated, as also of Eichhorn the minister of Public Instruction and Worship, of Schelling, Steffens, Twesten, Hengstenberg, and Neander.

Unfortunately these sketches closed with his notices of Berlin in the Revolution of 1848. We speak advisedly when we say that as a history of the times previous, this autobiography contains abundant and various information which cannot easily be obtained by an English or American reader from any other source. This information, inwrought as it is with the personal history and experiences of a prominent preacher who stood very high in a post of influence and favor with the Court, presented in a pleasant narrative, imparts to this book a peculiar charm, and entitles it to a place on the same shelf in the library with the memoirs of Niebuhr, Perthes, Passavant, and Schleiermacher.

D'AUBIGNE'S HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION.*-The Messrs. Carters have now published the fifth volume of the second series of Dr. Merle D'Aubigné's great work on the "Reformation in the Sixteenth Century." Two volumes more will probably bring the author to the conclusion of the task which he has proposed for himself. The present volume traces the progress of the Reformation in England in the time of Henry VIII.; and then resumes the story of the work accomplished in Geneva by Farel's ministry, and brings the history down to the time of the arrival of John Calvin.

ANCIENT STATES AND EMPIRES.t-Mr. Scribner has published a volume with this title, which has been prepared by Mr. John Lord, the well-known lecturer, for the special use of students in colleges and schools. The basis of his work is the admirable History of the great monarchies of the ancient world, by Mr. Philip Smith. His three large octavos are altogether too bulky for practical use as a class-book, and Mr. Lord has done good service to the community by condensing and rearranging it.

* History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin. By J. H. MERLE D'AUBIGNE, D. D. Vol. V. England, Geneva, Ferrara. New York: R. Carter & Brothers. 1869. 12mo. pp. 470.

† Ancient States and Empires, for Colleges and Schools. By JOHN LORD, LL.D. New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1869. 8vo. pp. 645.