efforts spent in these enterprises can be much more usefully applied to promoting the extension of Christianity in our own country. He believes that comparatively nothing has been accomplished by foreign missions, and that until the Providence of God shall afford plainer indications of probable success, it is wrong to divert the means which are all needed at home, into a foreign channel.

This is a view of the subject, substantially taken by very many persons whose opinions are entitled to great respect. The comparative claims of foreign and domestic missions, involve a variety of considerations on both sides, which are entitled to a fair appreciation; and the question is doubtless one about which good men may differ in judgment. This sermon contains some things which fairly bear upon the question, and are deserving of attention; but the tone and spirit of the discourse are such as every calm and candid person, even among those who may agree with the author on the general question, must, we think, regret. In stigmatising the Foreign Missions of the Church as a fanatical enterprise, and in endeavoring to hold them up to odium, the author has transcended the limits, within which he is unquestionably entitled to a free expression of his views, and has been guilty of a breach of propriety; for the same authority which organized the Domestic, organized also the Foreign Board of Missions. There are, besides, several particulars in the statements and language of the discourse, liable to exception, as incorrect and uncharitable to such a degree, as will be likely to lead many persons, as warmly in favor of Domestic Missions as the author can be, to disclaim such advocacy as his :

non tali auxilio, Nec defensoribus istis.

12. Hannah, the Mother of Samuel, the Prophet, and Judge of Israel. A Dramatic Poem. Boston: 1839. James Munroe & Co. pp. 94.

THIS is one of those performances whose most distinguishing trait is that unendurable mediocrity, which, without the faults or the merits of unripe genius, contains nothing of gratification for the present, or of promise for the future. It is stiff in style, hackneyed and prosaic in thoughts and images, without dramatic effect as a whole, and with no single passages capable of being signalized for their poetical merit. The Christian mothers, to whom it is inscribed, and their children too, had better employ their time in reading the Scripture account of the subject: they will find there vastly more life and spirit more poetry, and more dramatic in

498

Russell's Principles of Statistical Inquiry.

[April,

13. Principles of Statistical Inquiry, as illustrated in proposals for uniting an examination into the Resources of the United States, with the Census to be taken in 1840. By ARCHIBALD RUSSELL. New-York: 1839. D. Appleton & Co. 8vo. pp. 263.

THERE is no country in the civilized world in which the materials for accurate statistical information are as inaccessible as in our own, owing, chiefly, to the limited extent to which the authority of the government reaches, in inquiring into the management of individual concerns. The enumeration of the people, the bills of mortality in the cities, and the reports of trade, are given with great accuracy, but they do not embrace as much as they ought, and upon all the remaining subjects presented in our statistical tables, there is no reliance whatever to be placed. Mr. Russell, in the sensible and well digested work which he has just published, offers many important suggestions for remedying these deficiencies and errors, with especial reference to the next decennial census; but not having before us the act passed at the recent session, making provision for that object, we are unable to say if they were followed or not. We know, however, that many of the subjects mentioned by Mr. Russell, which we agree with him in thinking very important to be introduced into a full statistical view of the condition and resources of the country, cannot be inquired into by the general government, and if they can be reached at all, it must be done by the state governments; - of this nature are all questions of manufacturing and agricultural industry, of the health, habits, and modes of life of the people, of crime, pauperism, education, religious instruction, and special taxation. Mr. Russell's book deserves attention, no less for the lucid manner in which he has presented the great subject of which it treats, than for the importance of the subject itself, and, on both accounts, would be entitled to a far more copious notice than we have space to afford to it. On the question of comparative taxation, which gave rise to an angry dispute a few years since, we think it would be easy to come much nearer to a settlement than has yet been done, if the data should be taken from a few individual states, say Massachusetts, NewYork, Virginia, and Kentucky, in which the taxes paid for the support of the state government, and all other purposes, exclusive of those paid indirectly to the United States, should form the basis of the estimate; if this were done, we believe General Bernard's calculation of two dollars and sixteen cents, and Mr. Cooper's, of two dollars and seventy-three cents to each individual, would be found considerably below the truth; but on all such subjects, we have a complete distrust of numerical expositions. We know, generally, that taxes in this country are no burden upon the people at large, and that the reverse is true in Europe, which is sufficient for the use to be made of the argument.

14. Behemoth: A Legend of the Mound-Builders. New-York: 1839. J. & H. G. Langley. 12mo.

THIS work embodies a fine conception — a grand subject for the imagination. We are carried back into the remote depths of antiquity, when the great Valley of the West was filled with a people whose power and skill are attested in the relics of those vast and strange structures that have survived the lapse of thousands of years. Long before the point of time, however, at which this story opens, the huge mastodon, whose enormous bones are still extant, had been exterminated — all except one, and his existence had, for many years, been a dim tradition among the mound-builders. He now appears, the survivor and avenger of his race-moving, in the darkness of a single night, over the five thousand cities of the land, crushing down forests, people, dwellings, towers, and sacred mounds every thing, beneath his feet.

It is easy for our readers to see what choice materials are here contained for the creative and combining imagination. The manner in which the ground-idea is realized, does not prove as much for the author's power as an artist. The execution, in many respects, falls far below the conception. Not to speak of the want of full, adequate, and vivid details of the palsying effects of the presence of their tremendous foe upon the people, and of the want of proportion and keeping in several parts, the episode of Kluck hatch and his drum, his exploits, and his funeral, are a positive deformity, of the worst kind. However grotesque and laughable in themselves, they jar with the key note of the piece as much as would the chattering of a baboon with the symphony of the miserere. They are as much out of place as the grinning monsters of Chinese art would be, stuck up in the solemn dome of a vast gothic cathedral.

Who the author is, we have no conjecture, but we think we cannot be mistaken in supposing him a young man. We would do honor to his genius, but we would admonish him that to a perfect and never-dying work of art, there go both conception and execution. We would also encourage him. Michael Angelo's conception of his Moses may have long forerun his power to realize the majestic idea. Let our author study patiently, and practise perseveringly, and we foresee him doing something for the permanent glory of his country's literature.

We venture a single special suggestion as to this work. It strikes us that it would have been more poetical, more effective, and in better keeping with the mystery that hangs over the mound-builders, if the conclusion of this piece had been different if the mastodon had exterminated the inhabitants, and then, with whatever interval that might be best and most solemnly filled up for the imagination, been himself destroyed in some other way.

15. Religion of the Bible, in Select Discourses. By THOMAS H. SKINNER. New York: 1839. John S. Taylor. 12mo. pp. 323.

DR. SKINNER has here discussed, in a pure, fervid, and elevated style, several of the most interesting and important topics of spiritual and practical religion. The spirit of the book is eminently devout; the general strain of sentiment is edifying; and, with the exception of some things in the discourse on the "Restraints on Divine Influence," there is nothing in the volume that will not be likely to commend itself to the cordial assent of good christians of all denominations-nothing that is not suited to promote the spiritual benefit

of all.

16. Life of the Cardinal de Cheverus, Archbishop of Bordeaux. By the Rev. J. HUEN DOUBOURG, Ex-Professor of Theology. Translated from the French by ROBERT M. WALSH. Philadelphia: 1839. Hooker & Claxton. 12mo. pp. 280.

THIS is an animated sketch of the life of a great and good man. His memory is embalmed in the recollections of all who knew him during his long sojourn of thirty years in this country. In Boston he was revered and loved alike by all of every class and profession. All who knew him will bear witness to the truth of the picture of saintly loveliness here drawn. His devotion to his sacred duties — his fervent charity and love of souls-his meekness and simplicityhis disinterestedness and laborious self-denial, may furnish a model for all who bear the sacred office; and readers of every class may derive a vivid impression of the superiority of such a character of exalted goodness, over that of the most magnificent self-seeker, the history of the world can present. Mr. Walsh deserves the thanks of all for his spirited translation of this deeply interesting and edifying work.

In preparing this translation, Mr. Walsh has thought it best to modify somewhat the style of the original, as being too much that of unqualified panegyric, and also to make some "curtailments where redundancy and repetition were carried to excess." We doubt the propriety of such liberties; it would have been better to have given a faithful translation of his text, and said whatever seemed needful in the way of qualification in notes.

We ought to say, however, of the work as Mr. Walsh has given it to us, that without doubting the general fidelity of M. Dubourg, there are several mistakes in this book which should have been rectified. Such, for instance, as the erroneous impression conveyed

of a prevalent disbelief in the sacrament of baptism in this country; the somewhat invidious comparison between the piety of the Protestants and Roman Catholics — the number and quality of conversions made by Bishop Cheverus in this country his triumphant public disputations in defence of his faith, etc. It is not strange the author, writing at a distance from us, should have adopted and given these impressions.

17. The Life of George Washington. By JARED SPARKS. Boston: 1839. Ferdinand Andrews. 8vo. pp. 562.

THE admirable biography which constitutes the first of Mr. Spark's twelve volumes of "The Life and Writings of WASHINGTON," is now published as above, in a separate and beautiful form, worthy of the Boston press, of the author, and his immortal theme. It contains the various illustrations dispersed through the larger work, and is enriched with several new and precious portrait sketches. We have looked a second time through this faithful and interesting narrative, with deep satisfaction. It has freshened our conviction, that never was a period so accurately chronicled, never men so truly and impartially portrayed, as the times and heroes of our revolution. Each line of the volume is matter of authentic and significant history, and we feel that we may trust ourselves in it, without fear of bias from prepossession or prejudice. Great as are his country's obligations towards our just and indefatigable historian, he has a still larger- an increasing claim compounding against posterity, whom he has furnished with a text book of enlightened patriotism, for all future ages, and this must be, next to the pleasure of this labour, the highest reward.

18. A Dictionary of the Church, containing an Exposition of Terms, Phrases, and Subjects, connected with the external Order, Sacraments, Worship, and Usages of the Frotestant Episcopal Church, with an especial reference to the Church in the United States. By the Rev. WILLIAM STAUNTON. New York: 1839. L. Sherman. 12mo. pp. 474.

WE have heard of such a thing as "putting the best foot foremost." The interesting and useful little companion now at our elbow, has made our acquaintance after a very different sort. It promises less than it performs, and performs at the outset much less creditably, usefully, and accurately, than through the rest of its

career.

In truth, whosoever should judge of the "Dictionary of the Church," by the perusal only of its title, and the first six articles,