The sweeping tide of things Speeds onward with a vast usurping roll We hear the dismal clash of wings, (Dark Libitina's, Queen of Funerals,) The cries, the laughter, shrieks, and thundering falls, Religions, churches, creeds, Dreams, arts, and victories, like dull rotting weeds, Like cloud pursuing cloud, and shadow, shade, They disappear, and like a leaf all fade: Thou tremblest not, but standest o'er their grave, Smiling at death's all sapping wave. Great Ocean roars, And all his foam-helmed ranks and black battalions pours Which beat, and beat, and beat Against the mountain's adamantine seat, Whose sunbright forehead from its bleak repose, Smiles o'er a world of undissolving snows, Upon the stream of wrecks that welters by; So thou unmoved dost gaze On earth's death-haunted nights and wreckful days, The lyre, the lyre, Its hoarded thunders and its rushing fire, That from their slumbers shake the dreaming nations, The lyre, the lyre is thine, And shoutings of the morning stars, and ecstasies divine. All things tremble, all things bow, Save Goodness; cowardice and gloomy fear One levelled lance, From that sunbeamy eye, And Pride, and dull Pretension melt away, Great dread and anguish seize the shivering nations Which huge misrule and fire-brand anarchy, In rage, crushed rights, drawn swords, and smoking gore, Volcanic scars, and leafless desolations Thou risest; and thy strong, world-thrilling word, O'er the wild shriek of elements is heard; As rivers to the sea. And when Time's fierce, annihilating plough And crumbled down its monumental stones, Still thou shalt stand as now,— The lightning in thy hand, the rainbow round thy brow. XI. LECTURES ON THE FIRST TWO VISIONS OF THE BOOK OF 1859. Mr Newton writes with much earnestness and vivacity. He is evidently most deeply persuaded of the truth of his theory, and pressed it with all his heart and mind upon his people. His theory is thoroughly pre-millennial. He believes in the personal reign of the Redeemer at Jerusalem, with all the doctrines that are usually received in connection with it. There are no new arguments in these lectures, and the old ones have failed to satisfy us of their truth. Many things. in eschatology are by no means clear, but the millennial theories are, in many respects, the worst we have seen as explanatory of it; because they are, as it seems to us, carnal in their nature and tendency. Mr. Newton is evidently a brave and sincere man, determined to speak what he believes to be the truth. We wish him a more spiritualizing creed. XII. A POPULAR HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, from the Discovery of the American Continent to the present time. By MARY HOWITT. Illustrated with numerous engravings. Two volumes. New York: Harpers. 1860: pp. 406. 387. The facts are gathered together in this popular history better than one might expect. The names and localities are nearly correct, and the authoress has evidently struggled to be impartial. Her view as, we fear, a too "liberal" Quaker manifests itself occasionally. The reader will not, of course, expect any thing more than a compend of our history for popular use, and in this point of view we may recommend these volumes as well done. The style is plain, and the whole narrative unambitious, while the aim is to give all the material facts. The early history down to, and including the Revolution, is much more full than the subsequent annals; indeed, the latter are somewhat meagre. Considering the disadvantages under which the book is written, it is quite creditable. XIII. HISTORY OF THE OLD COVENANT, from the German of J. H. KURTZ, D. D., Professor of Theology at Dorpat. Vol. III. Translated by JAMES MARTIN, B. A., Nottingham. Clark's Foreign Theological Library. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston. 1859. pp. 532. In noticing the first two volumes of this interesting work, we mentioned that they had given us a much higher opinion of Dr. Kurtz than we had formerly entertained. This statement is fully confirmed by a careful examination of the third volume. It contains, in upwards of 500 pages, the "Second step towards the development of the Hebrew nation, the sojourn in Arabia Petræa and the Field of Moab. A period of forty years." Every circumstance connected with the Jewish history in the Desert is elaborately considered, and almost every writer of any value seems to have been examined and his opinions considered. We mention some of these that the reader may see how thorough the work is: Tholuck, Hengstenberg, Ewald, Robinson, Tuch, Maurer, Mavors, Baumgarten, Fries, Hävernick, Hitzig, Umbreit, Rosenmüller, Baur, Braun, Deyling, Lilienthal, Spencer, Schröder, Jablonsky, Michaelis, Vatke, Daumer, Rückert, Düsterdieck, Winer, Meier, Gesenius, Kanne, Ranke, V. Lengerke, Raumer, Rowlands, Delitzsch, Burckhardt, Schuburt, Seetzen, Link, Buxtorf, Bochart, Huth, Menken, Kern, Stier, &c., &c. The work is by no means dry or pedantic. On the contrary, it is quite agreeable reading. The learning of the author makes it rich, while his loyalty to the truth, and his evangelical feeling, and even his ridicule of the rationalists, give us pleasant sensations as we follow him through the difficulties of interpretation. Our readers will find this work very valuable as a history of opinion and as containing almost every objection or notion that can be started in regard to the Jewish history. We are so much interested in this work of Dr. Kurtz, that we copy a part of his discussion of the locality of the giving of the Law. It will be seen that he differs in part from Dr. Robinson. We do not pretend to decide the question, but give the discussion for its intrinsic interest. Dr. Kurtz' custom is, first to give a general statement of his opinion, aud then to follow this with a commentary, giving his reasons. First, then, the text: A calm examination of the biblical statements, a thoughtful comparison of the localities referred to, and a proper attention to the testimony of tradition, which is by no means as groundless in this case as it frequently is, compel us to decide in favor of the mountain-range of the Jebel Musa. The only thing about which there is still some uncertainty is, whether we should side with Robinson, who fixes upon the northern peak of this range, namely, the Râs es-Sufsâfeh, as the spot to which the Lord descended in the fire, or should follow tradition and many modern travellers, and give the preference to the southern peak, or Jebel Musa. A careful examination of the neighboring valleys and plains may enable us to arrive at some certainty as to this contested point. And, happily, the latest researches have added so considerably and essentially to our knowledge of the locality in question, that we can now assert with tolerable confidence, that the place of encampment in the desert of Sinai was the plain of er-Rahah, with the adjoining valleys and patches of pasture land; that the mountain on which the law was promulgated was the Jebel Musa; and that the spot to which Moses conducted the people of God was the plain of es-Sebaye. The Commentary, a part of which we quote, is as follows: We come, lastly, to the opinion which has generally prevailed from the earliest times, though Laborde was the first to test it by an examination of the locality itself, and which has been thoroughly and conclusively expounded by F. A. Strauss and Kraft, and warmly commended by Ritter. To this opinion we at once acknowledge our adhesion. Robinson (I. 153,) says, with reference to his ascent of the Jebel Musa: My first and predominant feeling, while upon this summit, was that of disappointment. Although, from our examination of the plain of er-Rahah below, and its correspondence to the Scriptural narrative, we arrived at the general conviction that the people of Israel must have been collected in it to receive the law, yet we still had cherished the lingering hope or feeling that there might, after all, be some foundation for the long series of monkish traditions, which for at least fifteen centuries had pointed out the summit on which we now stood as the spot where the ten commandments were so awfully proclaimed. But Scriptural narrative and monkish tradition are very different things. In the present case, there is not the slightest reason for supposing that Moses had any thing to do with the summit which now bears his name. It is three miles distant from the plain on which the Israelites must have stood, and hidden from it by the intervening peaks of the modern Horeb. No part of the plain is visible from the summit; nor are the bottoms of the adjacent valleys; nor is any spot to be seen around it where the people could have been assembled. The only point in which it is not immediately surrounded by high mountains is towards the S. E., where it sinks down precipitously to a tract of gravelly hills. Here, just at its foot is the head of a small valley, Wady es-Sebaiyeh, running towards the N. E., beyond the Mount of the Cross, into Wady esh-Sheikh, and of another, not larger, called el-Warah, running S. E. to the Wady Nusb of the Gulf of Akabah; but both of these together hardly afford a tenth part of the space contained in er-Rahah and Wady esh-Sheikh.' Dieterici writes to the same effect: "The view from this point is exhilarating, though the first feeling is one of disappointment. We look in vain for any large valley in which the numerous hosts would have pitched their tents; for the valley of the Jews (probably, the plain of es-Sebayeh?) which lies below, shut in by mountains, is evidently by no means sufficient. Nor does the mountain itself appear to be so detached from the others, that it could easily have been touched.' Let us turn, however, to what Ritter says, (xiv., 589, 590.) 'Further examination leads to a totally different conclusion. It is not a fact, that the only large plain adapted for the encampment of a tribe, lies by the northern cliff of the Horeb; but there is an equally large one immediately adjoining the southern cliff of the Sinai, from which there is a direct road to the Wady Sheikh, through the broad, capacious Wady Sebayeh; and from this large, southern plain of Sebayeh, the peak of the lofty Sinai of tradition, which rises like a pyramid to the North, would be just as visible to a whole tribe as the Sufsâfeh, which is supported by no ancient tradition whatever.' On a closer acquaintance with this plain, every difficulty vanishes in the clearest and most satisfactory manner. It meets the requirements of the case as described in the Bible, even to the most minute details: "For it is large enough to contain an immense crowd of people; it lies close at the foot of Sinai, which rises in front of it and towers above it like a great monolithic granite wall, to the height of 2000 feet; and the buildings at the top-the mosque, the Christian chapel, and even the stone of Moses are clearly discernible by any one looking up from below. There is not a single spot in the whole peninsula in which the typo |