instruction in its meaning, obtain a habit of reflection on what they are praying for. The design, in this respect is excellent; but it is a further question, whether it is advisable to pursue it by means of a paraphrase in The best way will be to enable each reader to judge for himself, by quoting the paraphrase of one petition, p. 11, (with the citations of passages in the notes.) verse. "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." Are they not flaming ministers above; " (a) Psalm, civ. 4. Heb. i. 14. Ephes. vi. 6. (b) Isaiah, liii. 7, 8. Heb. x. 7. The references at the foot of the page are given as scriptural illustrations of the view taken of the several petitions, and Mr. Grant entreats that those who use his book will consult them diligently. The Child's own Bible. A Selection of Narratives of the leading Events of revealed Religion in the Language of Holy Writ; illustrated by numerous appropriate wood engravings, after the ancient masters, from drawings by W. H. Brooke, Esq., F.S.A., engraved by Messrs. Wright and Folkard, Slade, &c. Parts 1 and 2. London: Longman and Co. 1838. (In Monthly Parts.) THE title nearly explains the nature of this work; but it is necessary to state, that detached texts are put together (without any reference to the parts of the Bible from which they came) in order to complete the narrative. Thus the creation is introduced by passages from St. John's Gospel, &c. This has its dangers and its inconveniences, although the intentions of those who have made this selection appear unexceptionable. The notes contain a variety of discussions; some directed against the common geological theories, and some philological. These seem out of place in "the Child's own Bible," although where the reviewer has looked at them the theology is sound. Conversations on Nature and Art. (Second Series.) London: John Murray. 1838. post 8vo. pp. 430. LIKE the former volume, noticed in this Magazine some months ago, this book contains a vast variety of miscellaneous information, con veyed in a pleasing form; and, without entering deeply into the different subjects of which it treats, says sufficient to induce its readers to pursue them further. Upon the accuracy of its matter it is almost impossible for any single individual to pronounce a judgment, as it seems to touch upon almost everything. The same remarks which were made before, as to the desultory nature of the reading induced by such books, apply equally to this volume. But the same excellent principles, and the same merits, serve also to recommend it to those who will, in all cases, indulge in desultory reading. A History of the Bastile and its principal Captives. By R. A. Davenport. London: T. Tegg. 1838. (Family Library, 64.) THE title-page of this publication sufficiently describes its contents. It commences with a description of the building itself, its original construction, the additions to it, and its condition latterly. The first chapter contains miscellaneous information connected with its arrangements; the manner in which prisoners were arrested and confined, and the treatment they experienced; their lodging, food, clothing, and attendance; the privations to which they were subject, and the cruelties practised towards them; the officers of the establishment, and the way in which they performed their duties; and a narrative, written by a person who was, during eight months, an inmate under the mildest form of imprisonment. The following chapters contain a general history of the building and its inmates. Of the more noted prisoners the author gives a brief memoir, not confined to the period of their imprisonment. Some of these memoirs are particularly interesting. In the last chapter but one is a history of the thirty-five years imprisonment of Latude, whose wonderful series of escapes from the Bastile &c. has been frequently presented to the public. The last chapter contains a history of the destruction of the building, of which there is a plate facing the title-page. The author, in the advertisement, states that it was his original design to link, in some measure, the history of the Bastile with that of France, but that he afterwards abandoned it, in consequence of its extending the work too far. The Dangers and Safeguards of Ethical Science. The Inaugural Lecture of the Rev. W. Sewell, M.A. Oxford: Talboys. pp. 66. THE dangers noticed by Mr. Sewell as attendant upon the study of morals are, the injury apt to be inflicted upon our powers of selfcontrol by the habit of speculation, the vacillation of purpose too often caused by the analysis of our moral being, and the errors arising out of the nature of the subject. Self-reflection is confessedly a difficult task; and the mind of the inquirer can only form its conclusions from the contemplation of itself-a single and necessarily imperfect object, continually liable to fluctuations, without any sensible standard by which it can be tested and set right. The safeguards to which he looks for protection are, a regard to the authority of the church, which shall control our inquiries and remind us constantly that we are actors, and not merely spectators, even in the world of reason, and respect for the common consent of mankind. The whole lecture will (in the reviewer's opinion) well repay a careful perusal; it is full of just thoughts and beautiful feeling: whether the latter portion will, to all minds, appear satisfactory, is more than he can venture to decide. The Young Christian's Sunday Evening; or, Conversations on Scripture History. By Mrs. Parry. London: Rivingtons. 1837. pp. 636. FIFTY-NINE Sunday evenings are supposed to be devoted to these "Conversations;" the dramatis personæ are, a mother and her son Edward; and the four gospels are the subjects of discourse. Mrs. Parry has furnished the youthful reader with a very instructive and interesting illustration of the life and ministry of our blessed Saviour. Her style is plain, and her observations display knowledge, judgment, and piety. Scenes in the Hop Gardens. pp. 232. London: Smith, Elder, and Co. 1838. THIS Volume comprises some conversations on religious subjects between a young lady and the villagers of a hamlet in Sussex. In the course of her rambles, this young lady meets the daughter of a country clergyman, Mrs. Mills, a unitarian, Mrs. Jarvis, "a high baptist," &c. With each of these persons she contrives to discuss certain points of theology; e. g., the utility of forms of prayer, and the beauty of the liturgical offices of the church, (p. 114-123;) the extreme sinfulness of the neglect of the public worship of God, (pp. 132-135;) parental responsibility, family religion, infant baptism, and predestination. The arguments in favour of our ritual are well put. By the way, what connexion has the frontispiece with anything in the volume? What has a fine lady, indulging in a little music on the guitar amidst mountain scenery, to do with hop gardens, or religious conversations? The Bridal of Naworth. A Poem, in three cantos. London: Simpkin and Marshall. 1837. pp. 111. THE author's pet character in this poem is one Ranulph, a hired murderer; and, to judge from the following portrait, no very pleasant companion on a dark winter's night: "The feeble gleam displayed His hideous aspect and gigantic shade. Fierce rolled his gloating eye, and darkly wild He glared around, and like a demon smiled; And from his strange and with'ring smile there fell A light, appalling as a glimpse of hell. Swoln were his bloated features, black and tense With each disgusting appetite of sense. His face and form accord."-p. 17. At page 19 the author exhibits his valuable opinions of the socalled dark ages thus : "In those dark ages, known through after times Then social strife made civil union strong, And crime was sacred, guilt awoke no shame, And superstition took religion's name." Alas! poor dark ages! This production of an enlightened period must put you to shame! On the Foundation of Morals. Four Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge, Nov. 1837. By the Rev. W. Whewell, Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College. 8vo. pp. 88. THESE sermons are a vigorous effort on the part of their accomplished author to displace Paley's Moral Theology from the station it occupies among the prescribed studies of the university of Cambridge, and to prepare the way for the introduction of a purer system of ethics, founded upon those principles which will be perhaps for many ages familiarly associated with the name of Bishop Butler. The first two, after some preliminary observations upon the great importance that the practical principles imparted at Cambridge should be true, shew that the doctrine of an inherent moral sense is established by scripture, that it was not unknown to heathen philosophy, that it bears testimony to the moral attributes of God, that it possesses a distinct and peculiar character over other principles of action, authoritatively claiming to be the guide of life; and that, however it may require to be enlightened and instructed, it still supplies a basis on which may be reared a sound and consistent scheme of ethical science. The maintenance of these doctrines is concluded by a practical application of the subject. We are reminded that, to perceive these truths of our moral nature, we must carefully look for them; that the apprehension of duty, as the primary ground of conduct, may be apparently extinguished by perverse and vicious habits of thought and feeling; that the fatalist, for instance, or he who professes to make selfishness his rule, or the disappointed searcher after mere enjoyment, have unfitted themselves for the attainment of this knowledge of their original constitution; and that for all there is but one appointed road in these inquiries. That those that do God's will shall know his way. third sermon is intended to guard against misconceptions of what has been stated; it might be supposed that the motives supplied by revelation were not sufficiently kept in view; but while to do the will of God is the sum of our duty, as he is immutable holiness, that will must be coincident with right; while the final judgment is a warning, that judgment will be passed in righteousness, and the call which summons us to obey God's will is but the echo of the dictates of our conscience; and further, the very perplexity we are under, from a sense of our imperfect obedience to that law which is within us, prepares us for the great mystery of the gospel, salvation and deliverance through the The atonement of Christ. In the last discourse, the defectiveness of Paley's system is pretty severely animadverted on, with a view to induce the university no longer to sanction it; the consistency of such a system as might be framed upon the principles laid down, with all that is true in it, is pointed out; and the renewal and assistance promised in the scriptures to man's moral nature is beautifully and most fitly dwelt upon as that which is to complete the Christian view of man's conduct, encourage our efforts, and realize our hopes. These sermons are forcibly written: perhaps the style strikes one occasionally as a little too flowery for the subject; but there will be few who will read them without interest, or without gratitude to the author for the distinctness with which he has brought before them some of the most important truths with which their minds can be occupied. In the preface, Mr. Whewell states his intention of shortly publishing an edition of some of Butler's sermons, arranged in sections for the facility of reference, with a few illustrations of his principles, collected from the writings of other authors. The Law of the Mind and the Law of the Members. A Sermon preached before the University of Oxford on St. Peter's Day, 1837; with Notes, and an Appendix, wherein the existence of an Innate Moral Faculty is maintained, and some Observations are offered on Mr. Woodgate's late Sermon. By Charles Henry Crawfurd, M.A. Oxford: Talboys. pp. 99. A PLAIN and serious exhortation to zeal and watchfulness in our spiritual warfare, grounded upon Rom. vii. 21-23, as representing the condition of all mankind. The appendix contains some observations on Locke's arguments for the non-existence of innate practical principles; and in the notes Mr. Crawfurd has brought together some interesting quotations from Aristotle and later moral writers. The passages objected to in Mr. Woodgate's sermon are those in which he states that the happiness which is the result of right action, "if sought on its own account, and not through moral principle, must of necessity fail, not only of being obtained, but of being understood;" and "that none but one who is already a good man would form at all a correct notion of it; while to every one else, a description of it, if it could be given, would be distasteful and repulsive." The Pope confounded, and his Kingdom exposed. By Martin Luther. Translated by the Rev. Henry Cole. London: Nisbet. 8vo. pp. 180. Ir may be necessary to inform those readers of this book who are not acquainted with Luther's other works, that it is founded on a particular interpretation of a passage from the prophet Daniel, (viii. 23, 24, 25,) in which it is made strongly to prefigure the enormities of popery. Upon the merits of the original work nothing need be said, nor upon Mr. Cole's translation, as he has so often translated other works of Luther. But it is impossible to avoid making a few observations upon the translator's preface, in which he introduces subjects irrelevant to the matter, and, in the reviewer's opinion, very in |