of virtues and graces, and in the correction of faults. One fault in particular, which is not an uncommon one, is brought distinctly out, and dealt with in a very judicious manner. The fault alluded to, is that of zeal in doing good, which, from the use of hasty and unwise means in accomplishing its ends, hinders, and at least temporarily prevents, their accomplishment.

The name of the female character in which the fault of which we speak appears, is Joyce Clayton. Her father is a clergyman, and a sensible and judicious one. The daughter is well-disposed. The father is sensible of the daughter's fault; and, after not a little of suffering and trial, she becomes sensible of it, too. Just look at the way in which she examines and judges herself after her weakness has been acknowledged to herself.

"Like a soldier who has once been surprised by a hidden foe, she felt as if no watchfulness could be too vigilant, as if every word and thought must be examined; and now, after Elsie had left her that night, she thought over what she had said, and the motives for it all. She had learned better to know her heart. There was the wish to show kindness to Ursule; with it lay the hope that Ursule would appreciate the contrast of her largehearted, more genial nature. There was the desire to do what would please Clement, shadowed by the belief that he would acknowledge the advantage of her influence. There was the pleasure of seeing her cousins doing themselves justice, and the pleasure of having been the means of awakening them to a sense of what they should do. Ah, yes, every light had its shadow! She had not conquered herself— that work was one which would fill a lifetime, would cost her many a fierce struggle yet; but she was finding out what she had to conquer, and there, by God's help, lay her good hope. Meanwhile, a difficulty met her at every turn,—the inclination to give up something that she knew to be right, because it was surrounded with the snare to be pleased with her own share in it. For instance, Clement had confided to her the relative position of Ursule and her cousins, and asked her to use her influence with the latter to set things on a pleasanter footing. Joyce knew that she could do so, and all that had passed in conversation during the evening but assured her of it more entirely. When, however, she examined into her own motives, the discovery of what they were like disgusted her to such a degree, that she was inclined to punish herself by withdrawing altogether from the attempt. Yet that could not be right; she thought over it on her knees, and, with a sigh, she resolved that it must be wrong to let others suffer through her weakness; that she would do what she could, would keep herself as much as possible out of sight, would watch, and pray, and battle against the love of government, the desire to be foremost, the wish to take the duties of others out of their hands, and, for the rest, would go steadily onwards, believing that He, who had shown her

something of the secret springs of her own heart, would also guide her in her endeavors to bend them according to His will." (pp. 317, 318.)

This seems to us as a healthy kind of action.

And as it is this

tone which very generally characterizes the story, we can very cordially commend it to our readers.

Essays Written in the Intervals of Business, to which is added an Essay on Organization in Daily Life. By ARTHUR HELPS. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1870.

A READABLE and useful book. Many passages remind us of the well-known style of Charles Lamb, though, as is natural, the practical advice is applicable to daily life of the present day. There is a freshness, a remarkable clearness of thought and expression in this last republication of Mr. Helps, that will add largely to the number of his admirers in this country. He appeals to the rational mind, and, doubtless, to this owes his success in great part. To the New Churchman these essays will be especially interesting, for we have few enough books that clothe the Truth in plain and sound practical counsel. A few quotations from the essay entitled "Aids to Contentment" will best show the quality of the volume before

us.

"Contentment abides with truth. And you will generally suffer for wishing to appear other than you are: whether it be richer, or greater, or more learned. The mask soon becomes an instrument of torture.

"Fretting might be prevented by a thorough conviction that there can be no such thing as unmixed good in this world. In ignorance of this, how many a man, after having made a free choice in any matter, contrives to find innumerable causes for blaming his judgment! Blue and green having been the only colors put before him, he is dissatisfied with himself because he omitted to choose pure white.

"The heart of man seeks for sympathy, and each of us craves a recognition of his talents and his labors. But this craving is in danger of becoming morbid, unless it be constantly kept in check by calm reflection on its vanity, or by dwelling upon the very different and far higher motives which should actuate us. That man has fallen into a pitiable state of moral sickness, in whose eyes the good opinion of his fellow-men is the test of merit, and their applause the principal reward for exertion.

"You cannot hope for anything like contentment, so long as you continue to attach that ridiculous degree of importance to the event of this life, which so many people are inclined to do. Observe the effect which it has upon them: they are most uncomfortable if their little projects do not

turn out according to their fancy—nothing is to be angular to them; they regard external things as the only realities; and as they have fixed their abode here, they must have it arranged to their mind. In all they undertake they feel the anxiety of a gambler, and not the calmness of a laboring man. It is, however, the success or failure of their efforts, and not the motives for their endeavor, which gives them this concern.

*

"They are up to their lips in the present, though they taste it none the more for that. And so they go on, fretting and planning, and contending, until an event, about which of all their anxieties they have felt the least anxious, sweeps them and their cobwebs away from the face of the earth.

66

Christianity rests upon a very different foundation. And surely a Christian's reliance on Divine goodness, and his full belief in another world, should console him under serious affliction, and bear the severer test of supporting him against that under-current of vexations which is not wanting in the smoothest life."

Everything human is open to criticism; but we are disposed, in this case, to leave a critical examination of these Essays to our readers, hoping they will avail themselves of the hint.

American Religion. By JOHN WEISS. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1871. pp. 326.

MEN more patriotic than wise have, at different times, devised all sorts of new things based on so-called "American ideas," or changes in old things, on the "American plan," and we have heard, at different times, of a "purely American literature," " American art," and the "American order of architecture"; but this last invention, of "American Religion," is certainly the most surprising of all the productions of our enterprising fellow-citizens, and, whatever else may be thought of it, it has one quality of a valuable invention it is, without doubt, entirely novel!

It seems that the ingenious author of this book has conceived that the world is swayed too much by authority, especially in religious matters, and the "American religion" should throw off the servile shackles of authority, and each free American strike out for himself in these matters, and trust nobody, and nothing, in matters of religion, but himself.

Says our author (p. 45): "She (America) can emancipate mankind from everything but its organization. That she must accept, else emancipation has no continuance. Can America set up housekeeping without a practice of the Divine economy of the Beat

itudes? Can she afford to do without a God, or to overlook the retributive agency of evil? Certainly not. These are powerful objects towards which the country must put forth its characteristic strength. They can only be acquired by the entirely original, unbiased efforts of each individual, independent of his memory of the past. Nothing is fit to drink but the water which you draw from your own well freshly every morning. The Beatitudes were drawn in that way, and quenched one man's thirst." And again he gives expression to the same ideas in language which would do credit to a juvenile Fourth of July orator in some country village:

"Six hours after daybreak in Europe, the sun touches his eyelids with red derived from all her battle-fields; that fellow-blood purges his visual ray from purblind histories of truths and politics not half worked out, of religious systems that only contain America by implication, of ascriptions of praise, through Jesus Christ, for the failures of a thousand years. He leaps out of bed, and touches the world's opportunity with his feet. His superb disdain of the old-fashioned style of dangling after mediators rolls between him and the Old World like an Atlantic; but through the depths of it hearts telegraph to him, and the instantaneous message puts a girdle of promise round the earth. He asks heaven for the day's business, worships when he transacts it nobly, and binds his soul to eternity by the filaments of every nerve he has. They are not transmitting the past sayings of great men; they are jumping with life to the lips, hand and brain."

The author seems to find it difficult to restrain himself from indulging in a gibe at the Gospels, on all sorts of occasions, as most congenial employment. For example, he says: "Compared with the twelfth chapter of the First Corinthians, for instance, all the fraternal sayings of Jesus appear abstract and colorless. They contain the brotherhood of man, to be sure, but it is as the nebula contains the planets." Surely one not wilfully prejudiced requires no argument to show the falsity of this statement, when he compares our Lord's injunction, "Love one another," with the passage quoted by our author from St. Paul, as proving his position, "By one spirit are we all baptized into one body," etc.

Again, Mr. Weiss revives the old accusation as old as the time of St. Augustine-against the injunction of our Lord in Matt. vii., 12, that it was not original; and, still further dwelling upon the same subject, he observes that our Lord meant the injunction to apply only to our dealing with men, and not with women. He says (p. 51), "When the world-old golden rule was reaffirmed by Jesus, it carried only His feeling that men must always offer the treatment that they

prefer to receive. * *It never entered the mind of the reproducer of that primitive natural preference for fair dealing, that it should include the emancipation of women." What reason Mr. Weiss has for asserting that our Lord meant to exclude women from the operation of the golden rule, if he has any, remains hidden in his own mind, for he says nothing about it. It is difficult indeed to guess what reason he can have, for Mr. Weiss will hardly deny that the original (hoi anthropoi) may apply to both sexes.

In reading this book we cannot resist the conclusion that its writer has sat so long at the feet of Emerson that he has managed to catch a good deal of the mannerism of his style, but not long enough, or not with sufficient success, to carry away anything more from his teacher. The writing by metaphor, and indistinct allusion, which sets one to guessing what the writer means, in the hands of a master of the art like Emerson, who knows how much of it is consistent with good taste and proper effect, is productive of brilliant results; and in the works of Mr. Henry James, too, when he does not overdo it, this kind of writing is bright and entertaining; but when employed by a mere imitator like the author of the book before us, it is often ludicrous, oftener obscure, and almost always disagreeable.

In conclusion, we would say that, in our opinion, those who have read this book are to be pitied; and those who have not, have at least one reason to congratulate themselves.

Episcopalianism, in Three Parts. By B. F. BARRETT. ram Partem. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co.

Audi Alte1871.

THE following paragraph serves as a preface to the work whose title stands at the head of this notice:

"A little pamphlet, entitled 'SWEDENBORIGANISM, by Bishop Burgess,' suggested the preparation and publication of the following pages. The writer has aimed not to copy the Bishop's strange disregard of truth and fairness; but in his manner of handling the subject treated, particularly in Part I., he has adhered as closely as circumstances would permit to the example set him in the pamphlet referred to; and in many instances he has used the Bishop's own language, only varying its application."

The author divides his subject into three parts: Episcopalianism in its Own Dress, Episcopalianism in Borrowed Robes, Episcopalianism at the Confessional.

After some preliminary remarks on the subject, Mr. Barrett says: "I offer no apology, then, for doing that which is my duty; for at