UHDEN'S NEW ENGLAND THEOCRACY.*-Mrs. Conant has given to the American public a very readable translation of what a German scholar has written about the early history of our New England Churches. One impression which the book can hardly fail to produce upon intelligent readers, is that the time has come in which the ecclesiastical history of New England, as distinguished from the civil and political history of New England, ought to be carefully and thoroughly written. We appreciate and commend what Mr. Felt is doing with praiseworthy laboriousness. But his work, of which the first volume has been for sometime before the public, gives us the dry materials of history, rather than history in the higher meaning of the word. Mr. Felt is a well trained explorer in the mine of old records and documents, and an accurate and patient annalist. There is no room to doubt that his coming volumes will be, like the first, an almost perfect collection of facts and references arranged in the form of annals. But Uhden's New England Theocracy impresses us with the fact that we need a church history of New England which shall exhibit events in their causes and connections, and in their significance, as well as in their chronological sequence. We need some one to do for the entire story of American Congregationalism what this German scholar has attempted to do for a particular topic.

Another impression which the book gives us, is that the history of our New England churches opens a distinct and most important field of investigation for a philosophic historian, and one that may yield much fruit for the common benefit of the church universal. The working of Christianity, in the peculiar circumstances and under the distinctive organization of those churches, is a theme such as is offered in no other chapter of history from the days of the Apostles downward. Nor is the subject merely curious in a speculative view. It is rich in most impor tant practical lessons illustrative of questions that are coming up for decision in every country of Protestant Christendom. The "church of the future," so much and so vaguely talked of, may not accept the Cambridge Platform as its constitution; but it is not presumptuous to say that the historian who shall explore with philosophic insight, and portray successfully, the story of these churches, will contribute some

*The New England Theocracy. A History of the Congregationalists in New England to the Revivals of 1740. By H. F. UHDEN. With a preface by the late Dr. Neander. Translated from the second German edition, by H. C. CONANT, Author of "The English Bible," etc. Boston: Gould & Lincoln.

thing to the conception of what is to be the organization and what the influence of Christianity in that new era of civilization toward which the world is tending.

The work before us was written under the advice and guidance of Neander, who, in a prefatory notice, described the author as his "highly valued young friend." Very naturally, it is somewhat such a work as Neander himself might have written. We marvel at the saga. city which, with means that seem to us so greatly inadequate, has learned so much. We marvel that a foreigner, who never saw New England, and whose disadvantages in other respects were so serious, did not fall into greater errors, both in the details of the story, and in the general conception of his subject. His only authorities are the books of which he has given a descriptive catalogue in his appendix; viz, Mather's Magnalia; Neal's History of New England; Backus's History of New England Baptists; Hutchinson's Massachusetts, with the supplementary volume of Original Papers; Trumbull's Connecticut; Baylies' Historical Memoir of New Plymouth; Snow's History of Boston; Winthrop's Journal, (the imperfect first edition, Hartford, 1790 ;) Knowles' Roger Williams; and Wisner's History of the Old South Church in Boston. These volumes, it seems, are all the sources of knowledge which the Berlin library offers to a student of New England Church history. Instead of wondering at the errors into which the author has fallen, we wonder much more that his errors are not greater and more radical; that he sees and represents so clearly the cardinal facts of the history, and that he catches sometimes the meaning and bearing of things which our own writers have hardly seemed to regard as having any special importance.

THE EXPLANATORY QUESTION BOOK.*—It is the object of this " question book," which seems to be well prepared, to assist and direct those who are wishing to study systematically the various doctrines of our religion. The importance of a correct understanding of these doctrines can hardly be stated too strongly. Piety, to be stable, must be intelligent. We would advise Bible class teachers to examine this book, and particularly those heads of families who wish some guide to assist them in the instruction of their children at home.

The Explanatory Question Book, with Analytical and Expository Notes. Edited and compiled by a practical Sabbath School teacher. With an introduction, by Rev. EDWARD N. KIRK, D. D. Boston: Henry Hoyt. 18mo. pp. 105.

THE HEALING ART THE RIGHT HAND OF THE CHURCH.-This interesting volume aims "to ascertain what data are furnished by Scripture to warrant the recognition of scientific and practical medicine as an essential element in the Christian system, an indispensable agency in the activity which the Church is called on to sustain in the world." It maintains that the work of healing should be “recognized as a function of the church, and the fulfillment of it, begun under the sense of it being a duty, in the discharge of which every Christian is directly interested." In advocating this proposition, the author, David Brodie, M. D., of Edinburgh, has collected much curious and apposite learning on the subject of medicine and medical practitioners, and offered many valuable thoughts of his own. The topic discussed is certainly a very important one, and deserves special attention in connection with missions to the heathen. We might not go along with the author to the full extent of what he maintains, but we sympathize with the general spirit and purpose of his work. We have noticed an impor tant omission in the list which he furnishes of medical missionaries. We refer to the name of the distinguished and excellent Dr. Grant, late missionary of the American Board in Persia. It may be, however, that the author designs simply to give a catalogue of physicians who were in the missionary service in 1849, when the list was prepared.

PHILOSOPHY.

AN ESSAY ON INTUITIVE MORALS.†-Crosby, Nichols & Co. have promptly republished Part I of the very interesting and spirited English treatise on Intuitive Morals with additions for the American edition, by the author. We conclude, therefore, that they have done this with the author's consent. The treatise is popular, but it is not superficial. It is written by a person who has read extensively, thought earnestly, and learned to write well. This style indicates a thorough and refined culture, and the book is far more attractive than ethical treatises usually are. It expounds the Kantial system of conscience and the will, in its essential freshness, with great earnestness and with some measure of Kant's

*The Healing Art the Right Hand of the Church; or Practical Medicine an essential element in the Christian system. By THERAPEUTES. Edinburgh: Sutherland & Knox. 1859. 12mo.

† An Essay on Intuitive Morals, being an attempt to popularize ethical science. Part I. Theory of Morals. First American edition, with additions and corrections by the Author. Boston Crosby, Nichols & Co. : 1859. 12mo. pp. 279.

enthusiasm. It also carries them to their legitimate consequences, in enforcing a theory of morals that claims to be more disinterested than the Christian theory. We need say no more than this, to excite the attention of philosophical students of ethics to this very interesting volume. It would be entirely out of place for us to discuss the old question here of the relation of virtue to happiness, and to determine in a critical way whether the author's theory states the question fairly or answers it successfully. It is quite enough to know that he has argued his own views with great force, and presented them in an attractive way.

BISHOP BUTLER'S ETHICAL DISCOURSES.*-Messrs. John P. Jewett & Co. publish, in convenient form and fair type, a much needed volume which has long been deemed as a desideratum by teachers of ethics, viz, Bishop Butler's Ethical Discourses and Essay on Virtue, arranged as a class-book, by President Champlin.

The attempt was first made by Dr. Whewell, but it was but partially executed. Whewell published only the sermons on Human Nature, with an Essay which were republished in this country under the editorial direction of Professor C. S. Henry, D. D. Dr. Champlin has added the remaining sermons, with the Essay on Virtue-has broken up the text into separate paragraphs, and arranged the sermons in such an order that they seem to develop a somewhat orderly and complete 'system. He has also given a running analysis in the titles to the several divisions and branches of the subject. He ought to have done far more than this, to have furnished a critical and historical commentary upon his author, showing what were the opinions current in Butler's time, what the questions at issue, what authors and what opinions he had in mind in his cautious and well-guarded sentences, and what were and were not his opinions. We are surprised at these omissions, and must therefore look elsewhere to supply them; while we are prepared to recommend and adopt the book as a convenient manual for the class

room.

* Bishop Butler's Ethical Discourses and Essay on Virtue. Arranged as a Treatise on Moral Philosophy; and edited with an Analysis. By J. Z. CHAMPLIN, D. D., President of Waterville College. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co. 1859. 12mo. pp. 206.

PHILOLOGY.

NEW "PICTORIAL EDITION" OF WEBSTER'S DICTIONARY, UNABRIDGED.*-A new edition has just been published of Webster's American Dictionary, with many and important additions. The general merits of this great work do not need to be pointed out to the readers of the New Englander. Its reputation is established. Thirty-one years ago the case was different. Then, the publication, by an American, of a new Dictionary of the English language, in two quarto volumes, the work of a long life time, was a bold experiment, especially as hostile criticism could scarcely fail to be awakened by the author's known peculiarities in matters of lexicography. But though received at first everywhere with caution, and, in many quarters, with prejudice, so great and obvious were the merits of the work, that in spite of prejudice it soon won the confidence of scholars and the popular favor, and placed the name of its author, where it will ever remain, in the front rank of English Lexicographers. From the day of its publication to the present, its reputation has been steadily gaining ground; and especially, since the issue in 1847 of the revised edition, edited by Prof. C. A. Goodrich, it may be regarded as having definitely taken its position as the standard Dictionary of the language. Not only in this country,

* An American Dictionary of the English Language; containing the whole vocabulary of the first edition in two volumes quarto; the entire corrections and improvements of the second edition in two volumes royal octavo; to which is prefixed an Introductory Dissertation on the origin, history, and connection of the languages of Western Asia and Europe, with an explanation of the principles on which languages are formed. By NOAH WEBSTER, LL. D., Member of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, &c, &c., &c., &c. General subjects of this work, I.-Etymologies of English words deduced from an examination and comparison of words of corresponding elements in twenty languages of Asia and Europe. II.-The true orthography of words, as corrected by their etymologies. III.-Pronunciation exhibited and made obvious by the division of words into syllables, by accentuation, by marking the sounds of the accented vowels, when necessary, or by general rules. IV.-Accurate and discriminating definitions, illustrated, when doubtful or obscure, by examples of their use, selected from respectable authors, or by familiar phrases of undisputed authority. Revised and enlarged by CHAUNCEY A. GOODRICH, Professor in Yale College. With pronouncing vocabularies of Scripture, classical, and geographical names. To which are now added Pictorial Illustrations, Table of Synonyms, Peculiar use of words and terms in the Bible, Appendix of new words, Pronouncing Table of names of distinguished persons, Abbreviations, Latin, French, Italian and Spanish phrases, etc. Springfield, Mass. Published by G. & C. Merriam. 1859. pp. 1750.