illustration of the effect produced in domestic life in Scotland, by the political and religious changes of that revolutionary period.

John Halifax, Gentleman. Harpers: New York.

This is the reprint of an English work of fiction, which has been variously ascribed to male and female authorship. We have good reason for affirming that it is the production of an English lady of rank, for a time domesticated in our land. From such a position, and such a pen, the moral it inculcates has additional weight. The volume is far above the average standard of fictitious literature, and seems bathed in the clear healthful atmosphere of a frosty morning in October. The story is told so naturally, that we do not wonder how the writer knew so much about his neighbor's affairs, and the interest starts with new freshness, where in an ordinary novel it concludes, at the marriage.

We are introduced to John Halifax at the age of twelve years; a poor boy with no friends, no home, no visible means of support; poverty stricken, but neither a thief, a beggar, nor a pauper. Of his antecedents nothing is known, save that which is contained in the fly-leaf of a worn Greek and English Testament, which runs thus:

Guy Halifax, his Book.

'Guy Halifax, Gentleman, married to Muriel Joyce, Spinster, May 17th, in the year of our Lord 1779.

"John Halifax, their son, born June 18th, 1780.

"Guy Halifax, died January 4th, 1781.

Muriel Halifax, died January 1st, 1791."

With no patrimony but his existence, his name and the little book, he commences in childhood the battle of life. Chance, or rather Providence, which shapes all events, introduces him to one Fletcher, a tanner, a member of the Society of Friends, by whom he is employed from dawn to dewy eve, in the unsavory and unromantic occupation of driving the cart of skins, and in making himself generally useful in his Master's tan yard. He starts in life with the true sentiment of the Shepherd poet, "The mind's the measure of the man," or in his own more homely phrase, "After all, it isn't the trade that signifies, it's the man. I am what God made me, and what with his blessing I will make myself." Starting with such a principle he could not fail.

The authoress has rendered a tribute to the working class, unexpected from one of the most exclusive of all aristocracies-that of England; step by step she leads her hero from the lowest to the highest round of the social ladder, attainable by a commoner in Great Britain, and surrounded by blessings and honors, she at last lays him to his rest,

"Sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust,
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."

The tale is pervaded with an earnest religious sentiment, and the morality is strictly pure. There are passages of great beauty; the life

and death of the "Angel of the Household," blind Muriel, the oldest and best beloved of the little flock, cannot be read without emotion. We would not say the book is faultless; but we arise from its perusal with the conviction of having been profited by it; with an intense appreciation of

how awful goodness is, and

Virtue in her shape how lovely;"

of the sacredness of the bond uniting husband and wife; of the awful joy of looking forward to a child, a little soul of God's giving to be made fit for his eternity; and of the immense responsibilities of parents; and with firm resolves to leave the thread of our lives in wiser hands than ours, knowing that He will weave a brighter web for us, than we in our ignorance and weakness can achieve.

The Philosophy of the Weather. And a Guide to its changes. By T. B. BUTLER. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

The author of this work, who is at present an honored Judge on the Connecticut bench, was, at an earlier period of life, engaged in the practice of medicine, and being gifted by nature with more than ordinary powers of observation, and a high degree of originality, he at first pursued the study of atmospheric phenomena for the sake of beguiling the tedium of the solitary hours spent in his professional excursions, by day and by night. What was at first his amusement or solace, became at length a passion, and he has since prosecuted the study of meteorology with a high degree of enthusiasm. The present work is the fruit of these labors, and affords abundant evidence of diligent and acute observation, combined with philosophical reflection. The work, although written throughout in a tone of candor and good feeling, is nevertheless very independent in its judgments, and may be thought by some overconfident in its decisions, when arrayed against the most distinguished authorities of the age.

The most valuable part of the work is, we think, that which treats of the currents of the atmosphere, especially as indicated by the movements of different strata of clouds at different altitudes,-a department of meteorology which the author has studied with great attention and success. He has possibly, however, fallen into an error very common to observers of nature whose sphere of observation is limited-that of supposing the particular changes to which their eye has been confined, to be a type of all things.

After Franklin had identified the lightning with the electricity of our machine, it was the practice to ascribe all the leading atmospheric phenomena to the agency of electricity; but of late meteorologists have been inclined to consider it as an effect rather than as a cause of the most striking phenomena of the atmosphere. The author, however, restores to electricity its ancient rank as one of the primordial agents of winds and storms, and exalts magnetism, which has hereto

fore been allowed but an humble place among these agents, into a cause of the greatest energy and most extensive operation. More of his readers, in our judgment, will be impressed by his ingenuity and originality in devising and defending these peculiar views, than will be convinced by his arguments. On the whole, however, we cordially recommend this book as well deserving the attention and study of all who desire to investigate the "Philosophy of the Weather."

Principles of Chemistry; embracing the most recent discoveries in the science and the outlines of its application to Agriculture and the Arts. Illustrated by numerous experiments, newly adapted to the simplest apparatus. By JOHN A. PORTER, M. A., M. D., Professor of Agricultural and Organic Chemistry in Yale College. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co. 1856.

This volume is justly described in the title. Discoveries which have been made within the present year even, are recorded, and the latest inventions which have exalted chemistry to the highest rank, as a useful science such as the Magnetic Telegragh, the Daguerreotype, the Photograph-are clearly explained. The reader is constantly reminded that he is dealing with a subject which has the closest relation to the conveniences and arts of common life. We have been struck with the purity of the Author's style, and with his success in the attempt to give a lucid and accurate account of his science, while avoiding technical terms. The experiments which illustrate and verify the principles are quite novel, and are creditable to the Author's ingenuity. For they are such as the pupil can make himself, "by the simple addition of a few test-tubes and a spirit-lamp, to a list of chemical apparatus which may be found in every house." The perspicuous arrangement of this book deserves to be commended.. Every learner will be thankful for the brief titles and questions which are prefixed to the sections.

Professor Porter's little treatise should be welcomed into our schools. Such works from scientific men of the first rank, promise much for the education of the people. The painstaking requisite in preparing an elementary book of this character, which shall be at once plain and thorough, can be understood only by those who have actually made the trial. In the present instance, we are confident that the Author has spared no effort, and we are happy to congratulate him on his marked

success.

A Letter to an American Missionary, from THE BISHOP OF NATAL. Natal: Printed by James Archbell, at the Natal Guardian' Office, Market square, Pietermantzburg. 1856.

An answer to Dr. Colenso's Letter on Polygamy. By AN AMERICAN MISSIONARY. Pietermantzburg: Printed by May & Davis, 23 Church street. 1856.

We might make these two pamphlets the text of a long discourse. Perhaps we may hereafter find time to do so. At present we can do little more than take notice of the fact that such pamphlets have been published in Southeastern Africa within the current year, and are now lying upon our table, as if to challenge our critical attention. A

difference of opinion has risen among ministers of the Gospel at that remote outpost of Christendom, and the difference has grown into a controversy. How long the controversy has been in progress, we are not informed. The first of these two pamphlets is not the beginning, and, for aught we know, the second may already have called forth a rejoinder.

Polygamy exists among the natives of Southeastern Africa. The American and other missionaries in that region have a rule requiring a polygamous convert to put away all his wives but one on the profession of Christianity. In other words, they refuse to baptize a polyg amist, or to give him the right hand of Christian recognition and fellowship till he shall have reformed his domestic arrangements. Dr. Colenso, the bishop of the English church establishment in that British colony, affirms that the rule adopted by the missionaries, is "unwarranted by Scripture, opposed to the practice of the Apostles, condemned by common reason, and altogether unjustifiable." This proposition he attempts to maintain in his "Letter;" the American Missionary whom he addresses having assailed it in a foregoing pamphlet which has not reached us. The bishop's arguments are learned and plausible. He reasons like a practiced logician, and expresses himself with a very becoming gentleness and courtesy. His disadvantage is that he is too much of a theorist, guided by precedents from St. Augustine of Canterbury and others like him, or by a priori reasonings, rather than by a practical man's knowledge of a practical subject. The "American Missionary," on the other hand, is a man who knows the Zulus or Zulu. kafirs, thoroughly, their language, their habits, their moral sentiments and sensibilities, and their polygamy. His "ounce of motherwit" is worth more than the bishop's "bushel of learning." He reasons with great force, breaking through the fine network with which his opponent would catch him; though sometimes he seems to forget how narrow the position which that opponent undertakes to defend. He shows, most convincingly, that the learned prelate with all his book-knowledge, has in reality no conception of the Kafir polygamy. We are constrained to add that he makes no pretense of any very profound reverence towards the Anglcian bishop; he does not address him as "my lord," or even as "right reverend;" he betrays not the faintest consciousness of any want of parity between himself and his adversary; though we do not observe in his mode of expressing himself, anything that could well be resented as rudeness. The unaffected and unembarrased air with which he goes through his undertaking, is redolent of democratic freedom, and reminds us of the Connecticut man as described by Halleck,

"He'd shake hands with the king upon his throne,

And think it honor to his majesty."

We give as a specimen of the bishop the summing up of his whole argument at the close of his pamphlet:

“(1.) I believe that polygamy is forbidden, indirectly by the letter. directly and expressly by the whole spirit of the New Testament, as at

variance with the mind of the Creator, and the great Marriage Law which he laid down for man in Paradise; and that, consequently, it cannot be allowed to Christians to practise it in any form,—that is, to enter into a state of polygamy, or to increase the present number of their wives.

"(2.) I find, however, that under the Jewish Dispensation, polygamy was practised by eminent and pious men, who, while continuing in that state, were signally favored and blessed of the Almighty, without a single word of reproof, or intimation of God's displeasure, being addressed to them on account of it.

"(3.) From this circumstance, and the additional fact that passages occur in the Mosaic Law, expressly recognizing the existence of polygamy, and that not a word is found in the Law or the Prophets denouncing and condemning it, I am led to conclude that, though not in accordance with the mind and will of the Creator, it was yet suffered by him, and not to be regarded by us, in all cases and under all circumstances, (that is, without reference to the knowledge of his will, possessed by the persons who practise it,) 'sinful and displeasing in his sight.'

"(4.) I am confirmed in this view by finding that, whereas the Mosaic Law punished adultery with death, no punishment of any kind is assigned to the polygamist, and polygamy is only noticed in the Law, to correct certain evils connected with it. I conclude, therefore, that polygamy was not considered adultery, in the case of the Jews.

"

(5.) Neither is to be considered adultery among the heathen Kafirs, who, in fact, though polygamists, distinctly condemn and punish the adulterer. "(6.) From the examples of the Old Testament, I infer that, though marriage, in the high and proper sense of the word, can only exist between one Christian man and one Christian woman, in which case it sets forth the mysterious union betwixt Christ and His Church, yet there have been marriages of another kind permitted, or, at least, winked at,' by Almighty God, 'in the days of a man's ignorance,' marriages which were lawful and binding, though not made according to the great Marriage Law of Paradise.

(7.) I believe marriages of the Kafirs to be precisely of this kind, and very probably derived from the days of Abraham himself, through their Arab descent.

"(8.) Such marriages, therefore, cannot be violently broken without wrong and injustice.

“(9.) Hence in dealing with the case of a polygamist convert from heathenism, we have to choose between two evils:

"1st.-Either we must allow him to retain his wives and children, and discharge his duties towards them, until it pleases God himself to interfere in His Providence, and release him from his obligations;

"2nd.-Or we must compel him to commit an act or acts of cruelty and wrong, and dismiss his wives and children, perhaps, to rot and perish in the abominations of heathenism.

(10.) I find no direction of the Apostles, and no authority of the Ancient Church, is to guide me in the difficulty.

"(11.) But I find a case somewhat similar provided for by St. Paul, who strictly forbids a Christian to marry a heathen after baptism, yet allows, nay, requires, a Christian who has married a Heathen before baptism, to retain his wife, unless she chooses to leave him. I find also concubinage, under certain circumstances, which might also have been polygamous, not considered by the Ancient Church as a bar to Holy Baptism. And I find also cases of incestuous marriages, contracted before conversion, which were allowed in former days to continue after reception of Christianity.

"(12.) Under these circumstances, and considering that polygamy was tolerated by the Almighty in the case of so many good men of old, and that, consequently, it is not necessarily "sinful and wicked" in itself, and contrary to all religion, though it is contrary to the spirit of Christianity, whereas acts of injustice and wrong are positively sinful and wicked,' and contrary to religion itself, as well as to the spirit of Christianity,-I believe it to be the lesser