signed his crown, and is succeeded by his son. The King of Hanover has, also, at the call of his subjects, granted considerable concessions. The Emperor of Russia has ordered a large and immediate augmentation of his army, as well on account of the excited state of Poland as of the proceedings in the other parts of Europe. CRITICAL NOTICES. A Summer in Scotland. By JACOB ABBOTT. With Engravings. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1848. Notwithstanding this somewhat unpromising title, Mr. ABBOTT has here given the public a very fresh and interesting narrative of a last summer's journey. He is a clear writer, and sketches vivid pictures of scenery and salient peculiarities of character, in a natural, manly, unaffected style. His fault, or not to call it by that name, since it oftener gives individuality to his writing than it obtrudes itself disagreeably, is his dry minuteness of explanation, and his too evident consciousness that everything he does or thinks shall be exactly right-a little touch of pedantry, which his turn of mind and long experience in teaching and writing on teaching have naturally forced upon him. Though this is less apparent in the present book than in others, yet it is still sufficiently so to be characteristic and often amusing. Who but Mr. Abbott, for example, would think of entertaining us with the following reflections after witnessing a burial at sea? "It is a common opinion, though undoubtedly a mistaken one, that heavy bodies, sinking at sea, go down only to a certain depth, when they find the water in such a condition, owing to the superincumbent pressure, that it sustains them from any further sinking; and that there each one finding its own proper level, floats about forever. It is true, indeed, that the pressure of the water is enormously increased at great depths; but its power of floating heavy bodies depends upon its density, not upon its pressure. If water could be compressed itself into very much narrower dimensions than it naturally occupies at the surface, so that a large bulk of it could be made to occupy a small space, its weight and its buoyant powers would, in that case, be very much increased. It would become like mercury, and it would then be able to float iron, lead, stones, in fact, all other bodies lighter than itself. But no such effect can be produced upon it. * "There can be no doubt, therefore, that the loaded coffin, in such a case as this, continues the descent commenced by its first solemn plunge, till it reaches the bottom. The average depth of the ocean has been ascertained to be five miles. If we suppose now, which may not be far from the truth, that such a weight would descend with a motion of about one mile an hour, the body would be five hours proceeding to its final place of repose. What a march to the grave is this! Five hours! alone, unattended, unthought of, passing steadily on, away from all light and where the last ray of the sun becomes extinct, life; passing, without even a pause, the limit and where the last trace of life forever fails! And what a tomb to come to at last! what silence! what darkness! what desolation! what eternal and motionless rest! At such a depth it would seem that almost absolutely nothing could ever transpire; and a human body, seeking there its last home, must find one so entirely its own, that probably for ages past and for ages to come, there will have been nothing but its own intrusion to disturb the death-like repose." This brings to mind the lines of Lycidas : "Ay me! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas Wash far away, where'er thy bones are hurl'd, But we should also remember that when a good man dies, he is not dead. "Sunk tho' he be beneath the wat❜ry floor; ore, Flames in the forehead of the morning sky!" Mr. Abbott's description generally has much in common with Basil Hall's, though the Captain is the more easy. Both have a similar passion for explanation and demonstration, and a similar want of confidence in the reader's acuteness; yet neither is ever dull. The accounts of York Cathedral, Edinburgh, Holyrood, Staffa and Iona, and the Newcastle Collieries, in this volume, are very entertaining. The following observations are just and timely; they deserve to be widely circulated, as embodying the general sentiment of intelligent Americans: "One of these impressions is, that there is a general wish in America that England should be revolutionized, and a republic founded on the ruins of the monarchy. I think it the duty of every American gentleman travelling in Europe to endeavor to remove this impression by stating, what is undoubtedly the fact, that all intelligent and well-informed Americans wish well to Eng. land and to the English Constitution as it now stands; of course, including such gradual improvements and progress as it is all the time making to adapt itself to the advancement of civilization, and to the changing spirit of the age. Such advances are not modifications of the English Constitution, they are only the working out of an essential function of the Constitution itself; for a capacity to follow and adapt itself to the progress of the times, has always been a remarkable feature of this most remarkable bond of union, and is as essential a part of it as the provisions for maintaining the prerogatives of the crown. With this understanding, Americans wish well to the English Constitution as it is. They desire no sudden or violent changes in English society, and no interruption to the vast op. erations of English industry. I do not think they wish for any diminution of the extent of English power. Wherever this power extends, in whatever quarter of the globe, there travellers can go with safety-there letters can penetrate, and merchandise be sent and sold. It is true that pride and ambition have, no doubt, powerfully influenced English statesmen in many of their measures; and English conquest, like all other conquest, has often been characterized by injustice and cruelty. All political action, as the world goes at present, is sadly tainted with selfishness and sin; and English administrations undoubtedly share the common characters of humanity. But still, after all, there has probaby been no government since the world began that would have exercised the vast powers with which the British government has been clothed, in a manner more liberal and just, both in respect to her own subjects and to foreign nations, than she has exhibited during the last quarter of a century, and is exhibiting at the present time. The enormous magnitude of the power she wields, and the extent to which its regulating effects are felt throughout the world, exert a vast influence on the extension and security of com. merce, and, consequently, on the welfare and physical comforts of the human race. In fact, it must be so. The English mind is in advance of all other mind in the Old World; they who exercise it are superior to all others on that stage; and if we, on this side of the Atlantic, can claim anything like an equality with them, it is only because we are English ourselves, as well as they. "Americans accordingly wish well to England. It is true, they are pleased to witness the advances which the English Constitution is making, especially as they tend in the same direction in which society is advancing in America. We might even desire to accelerate this advance a little in some things. But there is no desire to see a violent revolution, which should aim at making England democratic in form. In fact, the monarchical element in the English Constitu tion is regarded by thinking men in America as constituting a far less important point of distinction between that government and ours than would at first be supposed. The prerogative of the crown is coming to be, in fact it has already become, little else than a name. It is the function of requesting, in form, the party to take power, which Parliament makes dominant in fact. It is, in a word, public sentiment which appoints the head of the administration, in England as well as in America; the difference being, that in England it is a part, and in America the whole of the community whose voice is heard in forming this public sentiment. It is the existence of other features altogether in the British system which constitutes the real ground of distinction between the political conditions of the two countries." The Four Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, in Greek, with English Notes, Critical, Philological and Exegetical; Maps, Indexes, etc., together with the Epistles and Apocalypse. The whole forming the complete Text of the New Testament. For the use of Schools, Colleges, and Ecclesiastical Seminaries. By Rev. J. A. SPENCER, A.M. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1847. Dr. Spencer having "witnessed with deep regret the gradual and almost entire disuse of the Greek Testament as a part of liberal education," rightly judged "that some effort should be made to re-introduce the New Testament in the original into seminaries of sound learning throughout the country." One obvious step to this was the providing of a suitable school edition, which, strange to say, did not exist. Our own experience abundantly verifies Dr. S.'s assertion that nothing is to be found among the English and Continental issues of the proper dimensions. This is the more remarkable, as the Greek Testament is very much read in the English schools and universities, and that, too. by a not very advanced class of students; and there are several good English editions of some of the Gospels separately, and some very good ones of the Acts alone. It was suggested to Dr. Spencer by Prof. Anthon, whose pupil he had and we do not think the Professor has any been, that he should prepare an edition himself; of his suggestion. The volume contains about reason to be ashamed of his pupil or to repent 800 pages, two-thirds of which is occupied by the part commented upon. The notes, without being superabundant or otiose, are in general sufficiently explicit. We extract two as specimens, one on Acts ii. 3:— The Hebrew idiom speaks of the fire licking up what it consumes.-xádios. This verb seems to have no nominative: it is variously supplied. Bloomfield gives ἐκάθισε (scil. ἑκάστη τῶν γλωσσῶν) ἐφ ̓ ἕνα ἕκαστον αὐτῶν, with the sense, and there were seen, as it were, tongues of fire distributing themselves, and settling upon them, one on each."" Perhaps hardly stress enough is laid here on the error of our received version, which translates diapsgióueva as if it were xóμsvá, οι διασχιζόμεναι, “ cloven.” 66 · δεισιδαιμονέστερους, 'much devoted to religious things,' more than others, on which the Athenians prided themselves. The word is susceptible of both a good and a bad sense; the former is here to be preferred. St. Paul never could have begun his address in the offensive manner in which the English version leads one to suppose that he did. His object was to conciliate, not harshly reprehend; hence he says, 'Ye men of Athens, I perceive that you are exceedingly devoted to the worship of the deities;' which remark they would receive as a high compliment to themselves and to their city." We have but one fault to find with this edition. The root of almost every irregularly inflected verb is given, after the manner of a clavis. It may be said that the work will fall into the hands of many who need such assistance, but we are thoroughly convinced that any one who intends to read Greek at all, must begin by learning his verbs, regular and irregular. Any delay upon this in the outset will prove a great saving in the end. The Sketches. Three Tales: 1. Walter Lorimer; 2. The Emblems of Life; 3. The Lost Inheritance. By the authors of "Amy Herbert," "The Old Man's Home," and " Hawkstone." New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1848. | fore they were submitted to the writers. It sketches have been applied to three different 66 ume. But these tales have great merit, aside from the ingenuity of their construction. They are thoughtfully and elegantly written, and bear the impress of pure, refined, and elevated minds. They are somewhat didactic, and are evidently the productions of deeply religious spirits; yet neither the moral purpose nor the piety is so obtrusive in them as to make them unreadable, or bring them under the head of "instructive" or "religious" stories. They are pleasant reading for quiet parlors and sober families. An Illustrated History of the Hat, from the This is a capital treatise. It goes fully into These three tales are not unworthy the dis- the subject, irons it out with the iron of learntinguished reputation of their writers. The ing, brushes up its nap with the camel's hair of chance thought which gave rise to them was a fancy, and leaves it implanted on the reader's fortunate one, and the stories bear witness to understanding with the firm-seated solidity of a its having been carried out in the manner good fit. Though not divided into heads, it is stated in the preface: "This little volume had by no means a shapeless mass, torn and fractured its origin in the following circumstance. It with rents, or crushed with ominous dents; on was suggested as a Christmas amusement, that the contrary, it has the uniform glossy texture one of a party should draw a series of sketches, without, and cleanly arrangement within, which the rest should severally interweave into which are marks of excellence in books as some short story or description. The original well as in hats. The mass of information it plan has been faithfully adhered to: the en- affords, is truly surprising. It begins, as all gravings, therefore, are not illustrations of the histories ought to do, with the remotest antiletter-press, but the letter-press of the engrav-quity, and after carrying round the hat through ings. The sketches themselves are in fact the various epochs of time, and chiefly of Engviews of actual scenes, and were finished be-lish history, leaves it finally at "its ultimate 66 In our social and political condition it should be borne in mind that pure innovation s are not, though for argument's sake it be admitted they are with hats, necessarily advances They are forms and states towards perfection. based on reason, knowledge, character, experience, and hence those elements must concur in the changes, or else there will be no real progress. degree of excellence "-i. e. the present spring | manner. This reminds us of some modern medical treatises, which begin with showing from the Psalms particular diseases with which King David was afflicted. Our author, who generally writes very well, appears to have made a slight slip in the last clause of the above; for how Absalom's hat, because it fell off, could become the cause of his death, it is not easy to discover. We are very far from cottoning, also, to the following opinions : "Stubbes belonged to that very virtuous class of writers, not wholly extinct even now, that rail against the fashions of men's apparel, as though there were intrinsic good or evil in the shape and color of a coat; who judge of a man's morals by the pattern of his vest, and regard the texture of his pantaloons as a test of religious principles. It is time that the philosophy of fashion were better understood, but the plan of this little book prevents an expression of our opinions on this important subject. The latest fashion is always the best, because it is of necessity an improvement on the one which it supplants; therefore, to rail at an existing fashion is simply to rail at improvement. If a fashion were perfect, it would be permanent; but no fashion ever can be perfect, because man being endowed with the capacity of improvement, he can never arrive at a point beyond which he cannot advance. Progress is the law of our nature, and progress implies infinity. The possibilities of human improvement have not been dreamed of. A conservative, unim❘ proving people, like the Chinese, never change their fashions, because they make no progress, or at least their progress is so slow, that it is not perceptible. There is no such thing as stability with nations." To this it might be replied that the changes in the shape of hats are not always improvements, since old fashions come round again so often. Therefore we may be allowed to rail at existing fashions if we please. But granting that every change in hats is an improvement, these changes are ones of simple form, not based on reason, or taste, but wholly arbitrary, and beyond our control; the hatters make these for us twice every year, for which But we are taxed nine dollars per annum. that progress which is the law of our nature does not, in most other matters, operate in this Some people at the present day seem to think that governments are like hats; that we may change the block as often as we please, and it will be sure to be for the better. They even go beyond the hatters; for whereas those worthy members of society are content to allow our headgear to remain stationary six months at a time, these would have states live forever in a condition of pure democratical revolutionary bloody flux-progressing infinitely, pell-mell, everywhere. There is great probability that the hats worn by social reformers of this order do not in every instance conceal the largest possible amount of medullary substance. CORRECTIONS.-There is an error in Griswold's "Prose Writers of America," which attributes to R. H. Dana an article on Moore, written by Prof. E. T. Channing of Harvard University. We devote a paragraph to the correction of it, because the mistake was followed in an article on Mr. Dana in this Review for March, 1847. Prof. Channing's article was on "Lalla Rookh," and appeared in the N. A. Review for Nov., 1817, vol. vi. Another sentence in the article on Mr. Dana, would seem to make him the author of a review of Brown, which appeared in the N. A. Review, vol. ix., and was also written by Prof. Channing. A review of Brown, by Mr. Dana, appeared in the U. S. Review for Aug., 1827 much later. If these reviews were of merely ordinary merit, it would be superfluously nice to give even a sentence to settling questions of their parentage; but they are thoughtful and elaborate essays, and by no means destined to a transitory fame. Only a small edition (five hundred copies) of the N. A. Review was issued previous to and during the editorship of Prof. Channing, who was assisted by Mr. Dana, and copies are, now scarce. To our young readers and writers, many of the best essays of those gentlemen are, necessarily, as entirely unknown as if they had never written them. They owe it to us, to the "rising generation," as well as to their own reputations, to give us collected editions of their works; and we feel very confident that in respectfully urging the request that they would do so, we speak in accordance with the wishes of our whole literary public. Rational Loan Fund Life Assurance Society of London. 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