The sum and substance of Dr. Dana's letters to Professor Stuart, when translated into plain English, is this; "In entering upon your office you solemnly pledged yourself to support the doctrine of original, native depravity," and now you are laboring to disprove it." On all reflection," I cannot but view this error as" fundamental and vital," nor can I see how, as an honest Christian, you can reconcile your present conduct with the pledge you have given. It is impossible to describe the importance of our Theological Seminaries for good if conducted on right principles.

"But [we now use Dr. Dana's own words] what if they prove recreant to their high destination? What if the streams, that issue periodically from these fountains, should become impure and polluting? Alas, words cannot paint the bitter disappointment, the deep-felt grief, the disastrous, wide-spread, and almost interminable evils which must ensue!"

The point of such language will be understood, when we remember that it is used by a trustee of the Andover Institution, and a personal friend of Professor Stuart.

Among other considerations urged, the following is a little curious.

"Shrewd and calculating Unitarians are looking on the recent experiment with deep attention and interest. They perceive that much has been conceded. But they demand much more. Indeed, they erpect much more. They argue, with no little plausibility, that much more must and will be conceded."

To the following paragraph we entirely assent.

"I cannot, however, conclude, without adverting to one point in your Essay, which has not yet been touched. You seem to apprehend that the great evil in the church, at this day, is an intolerance of error; an extreme sensitiveness to every departure from truth. But others are of a different opinion. They think that a 'wide-spread and increasing indifference to sound doctrine is the present great sin of the Christian church.' And you yourself, I think, will not be backward to admit that 'there can be no surer sign of degeneracy than the peaceable progress of error. For myself, I have no disposition to defend any arbitrary methods of suppressing heresy. It is the truth which, in this case, is the sufferer. Yet if there is not, in this age, an unusual and alarming insensibility to the progress of error, and to the duty of opposing it; if many Christians have not too much forgotten their obligation to 'contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints,' then am I utterly unacquainted with the signs of the times."— p.45.

We hope never to be found opposed to a sincere and earnest search for the truth. We would by no means interfere with freedom of thought or speech, when used with a sense of the

concern.

solemn obligations which it imposes. But we do believe that, in the discussion of the great questions of the day, there is a reckless impatience of existing institutions and opinions, from which we have much to fear. Questions affecting the deepest interests of man and society are taken up as school-boy themes. The faith of thousands is shocked as though it were a matter of no The false views that are abroad give us little alarm; but the manner in which they are sustained and opposed is a ground of serious apprehension. Let men investigate with all freedom, but let them remember that the pursuit of truth is something more than a sport, or a Lyceum debate, where it matters little what opinions are maintained, provided only that it be done with ability and grace. A heavy responsibility rests upon them, and in respect to important doctrines, they should propose innovations only after the most serious, enlightened, and prayerful conviction of their truth.

The School Friend. By the author of American Popular Lessons. Robinson and Franklin: New York. - This is a close imitation of a German book of the same title, and is interesting as exhibiting, in small measure, the moral discipline of the German schools. If there be any mode of penetrating the whole popular mind with the principles of morality, it is through the instrumentality of the school, and the school book is one of the earliest oracles by which we are instructed in great truths. There is no want of good and attractive children's books in this country; but those fitted to the best ends are not yet freely admitted to our common schools. But they might be obtained. "It ought to be," says Mrs. Austin, that most enlightened promoter of popular education," one part of the business of those who preside over public instruction, to collect and compare the elementary books, and the methods of all countries." If a spirit of inquiry so searching and comprehensive should enter into our school councils, it is believed that the American" School Friend" would be as useful to the American people, as its original is to Germans. The translation, rendered in the present form for adaptation to our use, is from the one hundred and twenty-eighth edition of the German, and contains in an attractive form, simple and impressive lessons on the principles of duty, and the physical harmonies of nature.

American Slavery as it Is;- Testimony of a Thousand Wit8vo. pp. 224. New York. 1839. A very remarkable and terrible volume. We do not know but it should be regarded

nesses.

as the most decisive exposition of the Great Evil extant. It is drawn from the most authentic sources, principally the testimony of Southern men, and is largely made up of Advertisements from Southern papers, which certify, in the strongest terms, to the prevalence of all the heinous ills which have been charged against the system. Nothing can be more unexceptionable, in the way of evidence, and we do not think that any exception can be taken to the manner in which it is arranged and commented upon.

HOUSE.

-

Dramas, Discourses, and other Pieces. By JAMES A. HILL2 vols. 16mo. Boston: C. C. Little and J. Brown. 1839. This is as it should be, the beautiful works of Hillhouse, collected and published in two of the most beautiful volumes of the day. It is a luxury to look at them. They give a new charm, if it were possible, to our old favorites, Hadad and Percy's Masque, and tempt most invitingly to the perusal of the new piece, we are sorry that there is only one, "Demetria." This is a deep tragedy of domestic life, founded on the two odious passions of a sister's hatred and a lover's foolish jealousy. The story is a painful one, almost to repulsion, but is wrought out with great skill in the disposition of the parts and the delineation of character; full of fine touches of nature with constant beauty of diction and an exciting interest in the tale. It seems to us worthy its place by the side of its two distinguished predecessors. These we consider as having taken their place among the American classics; and although the uninvitingness of the dramatic form in which they exist forbids the expectation that they should enjoy what is called popularity, there can be no doubt, that with readers, who regard more the substance than the mere form of a work of genius, they will always be held in the highest estimation. They are not hasty, undigested, performances. They have been elaborated with the faithful care of a scholar who understands the dignity of his high art. The modesty of their author, who willingly receives from any quarter the criticism which suggests an improvement, and patiently retouches accordingly, is distinctly evident in some of the emendations to the present reprint, which also gives perpetual proof of the fastidious carefulness with which his own taste watches and perfects his labors. We have been

much instructed as well as interested by the comparison of many passages with the former editions; not always, however, assenting to the judgment of the author, and sometimes greatly preferring the old reading, perhaps only because we were used to it.

We only intend a

We have no room for extended remark. brief welcome to an author whom we honor for his fidelity no less to religious and moral effect than to poetical. We see no reason, on reperusal, to abate from the praise which was given to Hadad and The Judgment in two former numbers of this Journal; we are not sure that, in their present revised state, we should not assign to them even a higher rank. The three Discourses, which close the second volume, are manly discussions of topics interesting to the scholar and the patriot, containing valuable critical suggestions, and passages of power and beauty, such as one would look for in "the prose of a poet."

The Last Days of the Saviour, or the History of the Lord's Passion,-from the German of Olshausen. Mors Christi, vita mundi. Boston: James Munroe and Company. 1839.This little work seems to be admirably well translated. The English sentences flow as smoothly as if they had first received the thoughts. We should welcome the arrival of all honest and able works into our mother tongue. To scorn a nation's literature is as unworthy, as to be uncivil to their persons, or to reject their natural products. The present work gives evidence of serious thought and earnest feeling. It is in its nature both critical and spiritual, with a vein of the mystical. The apparent discrepances of the Gospels, respecting the Last Supper and the Resurrection, are harmonized as well as we remember to have seen them. We are struck with occasional instances of original discernment of the inexhaustible beauty of that whole scene of the death and reappearance of our Lord. Sometimes we mark picturesqueness in the description, and sometimes grandeur in the conception. The speculations about Christ's "glorified body" would seem to be harmless to those not prepared to accept them. And the book can be recommended as pure and edifying, and calculated to excite a new interest in circumstances whose sublimity is unrivalled on the earth.

The Future Life of the Good. Boston Joseph Dowe. 1839. This is an unpretending little volume, on one of the most interesting and important of all subjects Recognition and Reunion in another world. It is a subject which seems to

* Christian Disciple for 1821, p. 209. Christian Examiner for 1825, p. 301.

be calling more and more attention. Several small treatises and single discourses have been published upon it, within a few years; but none, to our knowledge, so well fitted for common use and free distribution as this. Yet this is not all that we want, not all that we hoped to find it. The subject demands a more extended and complete view of the whole argument of Scripture and nature, in favor of future recognition. Not that we think it a difficult matter to prove, or that it needs exact proof, or that we can enter into the feelings and fears of those who doubt. We cannot. This life and the other, nature, reason, affection, faith, Christianity, are all dark to us and utterly inexplicable, without the hope and the conviction of future union and eternal intercourse with those whom we have loved here. Every heart desires it. Every sufferer demands it. All that revelation does say of it is favorable; and the opposite doctrine, the only alternative to a social heaven, that of separation, silence, and eternal solitude if not selfishness, is to our view both an absurdity and a horror. Still there are some, perhaps many, who are not satisfied, and cannot be comforted, as they would be with more faith in this blessed prospect. For their sakes, we rejoice in every publication of this kind. The present consists, first, of a long and admirable discourse, on Reunion of Friends, from the pen, we believe, of Mr. Greenwood, followed by others, whose authors we do not know, some of them very good, touching upon different views of the whole subject. They are interspersed with pieces of appropriate poetry, several of them taken from that delightful collection, the Sacred Offering. For that also we are indebted to Mr. Dowe, and we wish it were more known. He has published two distinct volumes of the Sacred Offering. And very few books do we know, none of this kind, that we would more earnestly commend to the lovers of devotional poetry, and all who would gather balm for the wounded and troubled breast.

The Good Housekeeper, or The Way to Live well, and to be well while we live. Containing directions for choosing and preparing food, in regard to Health, Economy, and Taste. By MRS. S. J. HALE. Boston: Weeks, Jordan, and Co. 1839. -Pretending to no knowledge of the Cookery part of this new work, we yet confidently recommend it, from its plan, from the excellence of its general matter, and from the opinion of those who do understand the virtue of Receipts, &c. It is not a common Receipt Book. Its purpose is to give information on the nature of different kinds of food, and on the laws of health.