makes men partizans, when they ought to be philanthropists. The Bible is one of the freest books ever written. Its style is unlike that of our scholastic systems, as the costume of the oriental is unlike the pinching garb of the Englishman. It never intended that men should abridge its frceness, and press it forcibly into the mould of any human compend. We approve of creeds: they are useful, needful; but there is a difference is there not-between respecting and adoring them. We prefer to see men shaping their creeds so as to suit the Bible, rather than to see them shaping the Bible so as to suit their creeds."

We give one other passage-and it is the last that we shall cite— to exhibit still more clearly the spirit of true christian charity, with which the translators of this work regard the difference in theological opinions arising from the various accidents of life:

"Now there is a strong tendency in the members of every sect, to narrow down their views to the standard of a sectarian creed. Hence the necessity that good men of different denominations should have frequent interchange of thought and feeling. And there is a strong tendency in the inhabitants of one land to exalt certain terms, which their fathers used, into tests of orthodoxy, and to circumscribe the teachings of the Bible within a few national shibboleths. Hence the importance of looking away from our own land, and seeing phases that truth assumes elsewhere. We shall thus find, that modes of exhibition, which we have thought essential to a sound theology, are discountenanced by sound theologians who live under other skies; and that modes which we have always regarded as precursors, if not representatives of fatal error, are regarded by them as the safeguards of truth. We are alarmed at their peculiarities, and they are equally alarmed at ours. We e are wondering at them, and they are amazed at our wonder. All this is a lesson to us. It teaches us, that the spirit of truth will live, when any particular body of it has died. It teaches us, that no mere modes are the articles of a standing or a falling church. It teaches us, that wise men and good men have philosophized differently, and yet have had one Lord, one faith, one baptism. We learn from it, that those two disciples of the Wittemberg reformer were more earnest in contending for the faith, than wise in determining what it was, when they began to beat each other, because one avowed himself a Martinist, while his combatant had been brought up a Lutheran. We learn from it, that if men will unite in one theology, they may be allowed to come to it through whatever by-paths of philosophy seem best to them. It is well, if we be full-grown, to see as many different faces as we can; to hear as many different voices; so we shall learn that humanity is every where one and the same, though its aspects are often various."

Besides this introduction. there is a great deal of valuable original matter from the pen of the translators, in the form of biographical notices and notes; the extracts are from Tholuck, Koster, Ruckert, Lange, Tennemann, and C. Ullmann. We observe with great pleasure that this volume is soon to be followed by a second, devoted entirely to Plato and Aristotle, thus furnishing additional proof that the conductors of the work intend no one-sided view of things, but equal justice to the speculation and practical schools of philosophy. Its publication will certainly form an epoch in the progress of fair inquiry in our country.

12. First Greck Lessons, together with appropriate exercises, for the use of beginners. By CHARLES ANTHON, LL. D., Jay Professor of the Greek and Latin languages in Columbia College. New-York: 1839. Harper & Brothers.

New-York:

1839.

First Latin Lessons, with appropriate exercises, for the use of beginners. By CHARLES ANTHON, etc. Harper & Brothers.

AMONG the many obstacles to the progress of classical learning in our country, (and every teacher knows they are formidable enough,) may be reckoned the great numbers of elementary school books, which are almost annually sent forth from the press. The evil of a departure from a systematic course of instruction, founded upon a uniformity of standard school books, is one which continually multiplies itself, and renders the application of an effectual remedy more and more difficult. The manufacturer of a new grammar may possess sufficient knowledge to discern the faults of his predecessor, but often, in his efforts at amendment, produces more errors and deficiencies than he has corrected. The authors of these multifarious helps to learning, are sometimes men who have never been familiar with the Greek and Latin beyond the ordinary routine of fragments which are read in the usual collegiate course. Some of these works are merely ill-selected compilations from similar productions which have preceded them; and sometimes we have no doubt that the authors would find it a most difficult task to stand an examination upon their own grammars, or to explain the philosophy of their own rules. In such a state of things parents are discouraged at the great expense for new books, which every change of teacher occasions; and teachers, themselves, are led to despair of ever accomplishing much for the cause of classical learning, in consequence of the want of a uniform series, which should universally prevail in our seminaries, and be an unvarying guide from the commencement of the grammar school to the end of the collegiate course. This great desideratum can never be adequately supplied, until some eminent scholar, so much elevated above the mass as to defy competition, submits himself to this department of labor. Professor Anthon's series of classical works, we believe, are most happily designed to remedy the evil of which such just complaint has been made. Eminently qualified, as he is, for the higher department of classical literature, he has placed the community under obligations to him for his self-denying labors in these more humble efforts, to establish a foundation for sound scholarship, and it is hoped he will reap a rich reward in being the means of bringing forward a generation of scholars capable of appreciating the higher works which will form a part of his classical series. The two volumes which have suggested these remarks have been

only the subjects of a hasty examination, yet this, together with an intimate acquaintance with some of his other productions, enables us to form an estimate of their value. They are designed to precede the use of the grammar, and if any elementary works should be used for this purpose, (of which we have some doubt,) we know of no others that we could so cheerfully recommend. A change from an introductory book to another varying in language or method, is attended with embarrasment both to teacher and scholar. The evil, however, may be avoided by allowing in it no unnecessary departure from the diction of the larger grammar. This has, in some measure, been attended to by Professor Anthon, but not so as altogether to obviate the objection. A grammar is needed in which there shall be nothing superfluous, nothing deficient, capable of being wholly committed to memory, adapted for constant use until the student graduates, and designed for a manual to be rehearsed until he is as familiar with it as with his catechism. Larger works should only be used as books of reference. A grammar for schools, and for colleges too, should contain nothing which may not be completely treasured in the memory. Such a grammar, and such a system of school books founded upon it, is the great thing wanted, without which we may despair of ever doing much for the cause of classical learning. All, therefore, and we think the number is increasing, who believe that Greek is more wanted in this country than any thing else, will hail the productions of Professor Anthon as eminently designed to fulfil their fondest hopes. Almost any one grammar, even of an inferior class, could it be brought into general use, would be better, for the sake of uniformity, than the unregulated use of the many that have been published. Such a uniformity has become indispensable. It is time that the business of making grammars for schools should cease. It is time that grammatical language should again become fixed. This, in the purest state of learning among us, is of far more importance than all the new discoveries that ever were imported from Germany. We hope that the march of improvement will stop, (for a time at least,) with Professor Anthon's series of school books, and that no more will be written, and that such care will be used that no amended editions, even of these, will be published, until all the youth of our land, destined for a liberal education, have so thoroughly mastered them as to call for a new supply. Then, perhaps, we may go a-head" to some purpose.

13. History of Michigan, Civil and Topographical, in a compendious form, with a view of the surrounding Lakes. By JAMES LANMAN. With a Map. New-York: 1839. E. French. Svo. pp. 397.

SEVENTY years ago, it was the eulogium of one of England's most far-sighted statesmen, when speaking of the piscatory enterprise of the New Englanders, that Europe had been distance in the race by "a people still in the gristle, and not yet hardened into manhood." Had Burke lived to our day, he would have found in our country a still higher theme for his praise, and still greater room for his eloquent wonder in the giant strides now making by our Western States in the career of social and civil polity. Labors that in Europe were the work of centuries with them, have sprung up in a day-and their scattered population undertake, and not only undertake but perform, such gigantic schemes of internal improvement, as in Europe are hesitatingly entered upon, even amid the concentrated wealth and population of thousands of years. Nor are these mighty tasks directed solely to supplying the wants of the material man-his intellectual and moral needs come equally within the grasp of these infant Hercules-and Universities and Schools not only established, but endowed, are among the very first pillars erected in the wilderness on which to build the rising state, by a people yet laboring for their daily bread. Familiar as we ourselves are with this noblest phenomenon of our country, it yet never fails to awaken both our admiration and our pride, when brought home to us in some such work as the one before us, giving a birdseye view of the rapid successive evolutions by which a nation is thus formed in a day, and, as it were, out of nothing-nothing we mean but the sinews of freemen's arms, and the courage and faith of a moral and christian people. It is indeed a phenomenon at which the old world may stand and gaze-and many will recall to them the lofty strain of one of their own poets: "What constitutes a state?

Not high-walled battlements and lofty towers,
Deep fosse or moated gate,

But MEN-"

The work of Mr. Lanman brings before us the last and most striking specimen of this peculiar product of the new world: A state born as it were Minerva like, ready armed from the head of Jupiter, by which name is meant, says Bacon," courage and good

counsel."

It is but four years ago, the second Monday of May last, since the eighty-seven thousand freemen of the Territory, exercising their constitutional rights, agreed to form themselves into an independent state, under the style and title of the State of Michigan.

Of these four years, too, nearly twelve months were wasted in protracted discussion with Congress, about boundaries, before the new State could be recognized. So that what it has since become, is the growth of little more than three years. Now within that short period what has it done? Its population has quadrupleddoubling, according to census, in less than two years-its local laws, a compound of French, English, and Congressional, have been remodelled with all the improvemer.ts of modern codification. A board of internal improvement has been organized. Three lines of rail road crossing the State from lake to lake, have been surveyed, put under contract, and in parts completed and now in operation. Two canals, connecting its chief head waters, are also under contract. The improvement of its two most navigable rivers is also under survey and work. A system of national education has been framed, adopted, and carried out, more complete in its provisions, and more richly endowed, than is to be found in any of the older and richer states. A state university has been founded, with its buildings now in progress-branches of the same provided for in each senatorial district, and eventually in each county. Five of these already in operation, and deriving support from the already productive fund devoted and set apart for that purpose. A geological survey of the State has not only been provided for, but in part executed-and the reports of two successive years are now before the legislature-and to crown all, shaming, we must add, the empire state of New-York in its tardy movements, a historiographer has been, if not specially appointed, at least recognised, and a well written acurate history of the infant State now brought forth under state patronage where else in the world shall we look for such facts? Of this last and generally latest step in the bounty of legislatures, the work before us is the honorable result, and to the execution of it we now turn. It is such, we would say in general, as does credit both to the author and his subject; and if we mistake not, will take its place among the ablest, as well as the most interesting of state histories, that has as yet issued from the American press. The statistical part of the work is necessarily of local as well as transient interest--in such rapid growth, indeed it cannot be otherwise. Villages become cities — and hundreds grow into thousands, while the sheets are passing through the press but this is no charge against the author; and even here, his work becomes a valuable land-mark - while in its more permanent features, we hesitate not cordially to recommend Mr. Lanman's production as a faithful and interesting guide. Few, probably, even of American readers, are aware of the amount of romantic interest belonging to the earlier periods of the history of Michigan. Though as a STATE it is but as yesterday as a SETTLEMENT it dates back to the earliest records of European conquest, and of christian zeal in the New World - and the touching as well