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insufficient to insure it; discriminate acutely forgiveness, justification, sanctification, and then gravely call this dead disintegration of a sacred experience of the heart evangelical theology. Even if all the steps of their processes were correct, there would be no spiritual value in the labor; and certainly to preach continually the metaphysics of the process, would kill the disposition to know the reality. Let the father of a family deal with an offending son or daughter according to such etiquette of kindness, send word to the child that he has offended in such and such ways against the law of the home, the goodness he had experienced for years, the morals of the neighborhood, and that the work of restoration and forgiveness must follow certain stages, which are clearly presented in a letter; and do you think there would be a joyous springing back of the heart of the child into the embrace of paternal affection? The vitality of the restoration would be quenched by the diplomacy of the plan. We should like to read the history of a household governed strictly on the principles and by the methods of the Orthodox analysis of the government of God.

He

The forgiveness of sin cannot be reduced to satisfactory doctrinal formulas. It is an experience, and the reality cannot be disshevelled into strands, which can be re-combined by the intellect and produce the thing itself. God forgives us if we repent; the broken relations and interrupted intimacy of parent and child are restored in and after sincere contrition. This is the statement of Jesus. does not untwist the fact for the delight of the intellect. By his religion he strives to let the sunbeam quicken the heart into experience itself; and any prismatic prying may as well attempt to account for the mystery of growth under the solar shower, as metaphysics think to detect the secret, or improve the efficacy of the working of divine love, in the production of penitence and the peace of resto

ration.

Mr. Clarke's book, though systematic in form, respects the spiritual mystery of the fact itself, and his analytic methods are justified by his desire to relieve the subject from the confusion and error which Orthodox science has generated. We have read his work with pleasure, profit, and general satisfaction. The simplicity and directness of the style befit the theme, and indicate the working of a mind sincere and earnest about the great subject it unfolds. After some thirty pages devoted to the statement of the question, and the extreme contradictory positions of the Orthodox and the Rationalists, he divides his treatment into four sections, the nature of forgiveness, its conditions, the obstacles and helps, and its results. He shows very clearly, that pardon does not imply the cessation of retributory consequences, or prevent them. We notice, however, that Mr. Clarke takes the extreme Unitarian position concerning penalties, maintaining that “every hour in which the real work of life is post

poned, is so much actually and forever lost. Every moment given to sin receives an immediate and permanent penalty in so much loss of moral life." This doctrine is based on the idea, that spiritual experience is governed by mechanical and statical laws, instead of being a development of qualities. Former sin does not prevent the attainment of entire consecration to goodness and God, and that complete consecration may put the spiritual novice of a week in kindred with a saint. There is a law of limits in moral as in physical nature, and we might as well argue that the disturbance of a lake by a stone, will ruffle its surface forever, as that the sin of former years heartily repented of and forgiven, will make a permanent deduction from the capacity of the soul. We like Mr. Clarke's book on the whole, and should be glad to see it widely circulated among liberal Christians.

K.

29. The Genius and Character of Burns. By Professor Wilson of the University of Edinburgh, Author of the Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life; the Recollections of Christopher North, etc. etc. adelphia: A. Hart, late Carey & Hart, &c. 1851. 12mo. pp. 222.

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We need not recommend this work to the lovers of Burns, or to the admirers of Wilson; and these two designations embrace about all who have hearts to feel, and tastes to appreciate. Carlyle's Review of Burns, and the illustrative, discursive, meditative, loving criticism of Wilson, are, we believe, the best things that have been written on the poet.

30. Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy, delivered at the Royal Institute, in the years 1804,*1805, and 1806. By the late Rev. Sydney Smith, M. A. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1850. pp. 391.

12mo.

We suppose our readers are acquainted with the singular history of these Sketches, and with the circumstances and occasion of their appearing before the public. It is indeed rather late, now, to set about a notice of them, for the first time. But they merit honorable mention; and we wish to recommend them, for certain peculiarities, to the attention of such as have not yet read them. We cannot say much for them in respect to depth and acuteness of abstraction; for there is no abstraction in them, comparatively speaking. Sydney Smith presents every thing in the concrete, and keeps out in the open world of living organic forms, even when discussing internal principles. They have to come forth into action, sporting, or struggling, according to their wont, when he deals with them. His book is healthful reading. There is about the same difference between it and some other treatises on the subject, that there is between the closet of the anatomist, and the hall of wit and practical wisdom, where every thing is fresh and alive. If we are not made profounder metaphysicians by his lectures, we rise from them invigo

rated for action. We need not say that a spontaneous humor pervades the work, for Sydney Smith could never write on any other conditions; but we will say that his humor is so cordial, so direct from the whole soul of the man, that, after once enjoying it, we feel an increased antipathy to the factitious specimens which are sometimes paraded before us.

31. Poems. By Richard Henry Stoddard. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, & Fields. 1852.

A Book of Romances, Lyrics, and Songs. By Bayard Taylor. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, & Fields. 1852.

66

Two collections of poems by young American writers and intimate friends. Mr. Stoddard is the poet of sentiment and luxurious sensation; Mr. Taylor of legend, action and adventure. The verse of Mr. Stoddard has more melody and grace, and in many passages reminds the reader of Keats. Mr. Taylor's rhythm is harder and less musical, but has the sinew and strength of a more chivalrous and stirring man. The Hymn to the Beautiful" in Mr. Stoddard's volume has some remarkable merits, and shows that he has the true poetic soul. But he lives too much within himself, in daydreams and voluptuous imaginings of more romantic forms and rosy appurtenances of existence. If the two poets could be mixed, and then divided, the soul of each and their literary products would be gainers by the fusion. Bayard Taylor has been a sufferer by a bereavement which removed from him one whose vision "far and sweet," in travels and labors,

"Lay glimmering in his heart for years
Dim with the mist of happy tears."

"That vision died, in drops of woe,
In blotting drops, dissolving slow;
Now, toiling day and sorrowing night,
Another vision fills my sight.

A cold mound in the winter snow;
A colder heart at rest below;
A life in utter loneness hurled,
And darkness over all the world.

My heart, a bird with broken wing,
Deserted by its mate, of spring,

Droops, shivering, while the chill winds blow,
And fill the nest of Love with snow."

It gives us pain that the three poems-the "Prayer," "Two Visions," and "Sonnet to G. H. B." which refer to his affliction, contain no allusion to any religious hopes or trust that can alleviate the loss, or make it the medicine of the soul.

K.

32. Fall of Poland; containing an Analytical and a Philosophical Account of the causes which conspired in the Ruin of that Nation, together with a history of the country from its origin. By L. C. Saxton, &c. In two Volumes. New York: Charles Scribner, &c. 1851. 12mo. pp. 563.

We have not had leisure to read this work; but we set the title down as one that may awaken some interest with those who sympathize in the fortune of Poland.

33. A Farewell Discourse, preached in Taunton, Mass., November 9th, 1851. By Rev. George W. Quinby. Also a Historical Sketch of the Society over which he was Pastor. Boston: Published by James M. Usher, &c. 1852. 8vo. pp. 32.

The sermon is a simple token of affection to his people, which they will long preserve and regard with fondness, out of respect to their late faithful pastor. We like the plan of affixing a Historical Sketch of the Society, to discourses on similar occasions, though, it occurs to us, now, that, were this practice to be always observed, we should in process of time have a voluminous mass of historical documents of the kind.

34. Young Americans Abroad; or, Vacation in Europe: Travels in England, France, Holland, Belgium, Prussia, and Switzerland. With Illustrations. Boston: Gould and Lincoln. 1852.

The Island Home; or the Young Cast-Aways. Edited By Christopher Romaunt Esq. Boston: Gould and Lincoln.

1852.

These are published as suitable for Gift-books to boys and girls on the boundary years that skirt the season of youth. The first book is quite novel. It is made up of letters, from boys of twelve, fourteen, and sixteen, who visited Europe under the charge of their instructor, Rev. Dr. Choules, of Newport, to a common friend, of sixteen, who was left at home. They evince the freshness of perception, and contact of the mind with realities, which naturally distinguish the products of that season of life, and must prove a most useful and entertaining revelation of Europe to young readers, given as it is in their own dialect, and alive with their own sympathies.

The other book is a juvenile Robinson-Crusoe story, upon which are strung fine descriptions of the charms, dangers, and natural accompaniments of tropical island life.

ART. VIII.

Progress, as exhibited in the Government of Ancient Greece.

History of Greece, by George Grote, Esq. 8 vols. 8vo. London,

1850.

IN placing the abovenamed work at the head of this article, our object is not a general notice of its contents, but rather to acknowledge, in advance, the chief source whence the facts comprised in the following pages are derived. It is proper to remark, however, that the testimony of competent critics has awarded Mr. Grote the very highest rank among the historians of Greece. With a spirit of liberality fully equal to that which does such honor to the pages of Thirlwall, Mr. Grote has also applied, to the facts of Grecian history, a test of credibility even more rigid than the one employed by that excellent author; and besides a greater fulness of detail, he has eminently succeeded in the task which none of his predecessors proposed, -that of casting the facts of his narrative into something like a philosophical mould. In the eight volumes now printed, (the work when complete will probably comprise ten or twelve volumes,) the author has not only recorded the phenomena of Grecian life, but has so recorded them as, thus far, to realize the high intent which he avows in his preface, that of presenting, not merely a history of events, but a faithful picture of the ancient Greek mind.

The object which we propose in the present article is to present, chiefly with the aid of the author now introduced, a few such facts in the history of the ancient Greeks, as may exhibit the progress developed in the government of that wonderful people. And in approaching this subject, we may premise with the remark, that with respect to the matter of government itself, it would certainly be a great error to regard it as an arbitrary institution—an artificial creation. Governments are not made; they grow: they are the necessary developements of a people endowed with social instincts and wants. Constitutions and laws, when a people arrive at the stage of political growth which these imply, are but a formal, systematic 10

VOL. IX.

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