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21. White, Red, Black. Sketches of American Society in the United States, during the Visit of their Guests. By Francis and The resa Pulszky. New York: Redfield. 1853. 2 vols. 12mo. pp. 331, 342.

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Such is the fantastic title of a new book on our country and its characteristics. The words "white, red, and black," refer of course to the three races, White, Indian, and Negro. Our people will not be indifferent to the opinion formed of them by Kossuth's suite, and it is a matter of some importance what report is made by persons to whom such favorable opportunities were open for seeing our life. Unhappily, however, the work is too ill digested to be very valuable. It consists of notes of travel, hasty observations, and passages from Madame Pulszky's diary, which give momentary impressions and not reflective conclusions. We have been struck with the fulness and general accuracy of information as to the resources, education, parties, &c., of the country, but the judgements given, though favorable enough, certainly, are not often worth much, and the impression one receives from reading the volumes, is that the authors had little time to think while here, and only leisure enough to empty their memoranda when they determined to publish.

K.

22. The Life of Mary L. Ware, Wife of Henry Ware, Jr. By Edward B. Hall. Fourth Thousand. Boston: Crosby, Nichols & Co. 1853.

A good biography of a truly Christian character is one of the greatest benefactions of literature to society, especially, if the subject of it lived a secluded, domestic life, and invested the common trials, discipline, privileges and enjoyments of our lot, with the strength, sanctity, and sweetness of a devout spirit. The biography of Mrs. Ware is such a book. It shows us how different the ordinary experience of men and women is, when illuminated by a Christian faith and consecration, from what it is when no religious purpose and principles underlie and hallow it. There was nothing remarkable in the gifts or position of Mrs. Ware. Her education, her trials, her struggles with sickness, her domestic and homely duties, her bereavements, her silent wrestle with pain and disappointment, were similar to the lot of thousands. But her steadiness of purpose, her self-consecration, her faithfulness in spiritual culture, her religious patience and Christian courage, and uncomplaining serenity of soul, her devotion to the good of others and joy in selfsacrifice, her sacred use of life, and peace at its close, were the peculiar gifts of the Christian religion, and by these her retired career was transfigured, and her name raised to the society of the holy heroines of the Church. We trust that the mission of this book is not half accomplished yet, but that many editions of it will bear the portrait of a true Christian woman into New England homes.

K.

23. Napoleon in Exile; or, a voice from St. Helena. The opinions and reflections of Napoleon on the most important events in his Life and Government, in his own words. By Barry C. O'Meara, Esq., his late Surgeon. New York: Redfield. 1853. 2 vols., 12mo. pp. 328, 322.

It is needless to say any thing at this day in favor of a book so fascinating as these conversations of Napoleon, during the twilight years that intervened between his glory and his grave. We do not know a great man till we see him in his mental undress, and listen to his familiar talk. Napoleon, however, does not gain by the reve lations made of his personal manners and off-hand conversation. His private greatness is not large enough for his genius. But to the rich sources of interest contained in this work of his physician, O'Meara, is to be added the painful excitement of feeling caused by the petty cruelty and mean vexations with which the English governor of St. Helena harassed the great captive whom he had in charge.

K.

24. Essays on the Poets, and other English Writers. By Thomas de Quincey, Author of "Confessions of an English Opium Eater," etc. etc. Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields. 1853. 12mo. pp. 296.

This is the tenth volume of De Quincey's writings already published by Ticknor & Co. We have expressed our estimate of the author so often and so freely that we need only announce this new work. It is hardly inferior to any of its predecessors in interest. The first paper, on the poetry of Wordsworth, contains passages of most subtle and valuable criticism, and the description of William Hazlitt is one of the most vivid portraits in literature. The other articles are devoted to Shelley, Keats, Goldsmith, Pope, Goodwin, John Foster, and Walter Savage Landor.

K.

25. The History of the Restoration of Monarchy in France. By Alphonse De Lamartine, author of "the History of the Girondists." Vol. iii. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1852. 12mo. pp. 554.

This volume continues Lamartine's History from the overthrow of Napoleon to his death. It has of course all the merits and vices of the former volumes. It bears the marks of hasty writing and of loose reflection. Students say that Lamartine is not reliable in his statements of fact. But it cannot be denied that the chapters are fascinating, nor that the standard by which the author judges historical characters is high and stern.

K.

26. The Sickness and Health of the people of Bleaburn. Boston: Crosby, Nichols & Company. 1853. 16mo. pp. 148.

This story was written by Harriet Martineau, and it clothes with a light drapery of fiction a real instance of humane devotion in the life of Mrs. Mary L. Ware, to whose memoir we have called atten- .

tion. The spirit of the story and the essential accidents are true, and this little volume should accompany the biography of Mrs. Ware, that readers may have one vivid picture of the devotedness and the charity which ennobled and glorified her character.

K.

27. Historic Doubts relative to Napoleon Buonaparte. Fourth American, from the eleventh London Edition, with a postscript. Boston and Cambridge: James Munroe & Company. 1853. 16mo. pp. 75.

We presume that our readers, for the most part, are acquainted with this small volume. It was written to show the weakness of the historical skepticism as to the New Testament, by applying the principles of Hume to the career of Napoleon. Supposing ourselves removed eighteen hundred years from his time, and that his deeds were chronicled in the style of the Biblical narratives, the author shows that the absurdities of the history would seem numberless, and that the life of Napoleon could be proved to contradict the laws of human nature. The points are very cleverly made. It is understood that the book is from the pen of Archbishop Whately. K.

28. Rational Psychology: or the Subjective Idea and the Objective Law of All Intelligence. By Laurens P. Hickok, D. D. Professor of Christian Theology in the Theological Seminary of Auburn. Auburn : Derby, Miller & Co. 1849. 8vo. pp. 717.

It is only within a few weeks that we have become acquainted with this book. We feel no hesitation in saying that it is one of the most vigorous productions of the American mind. Certainly no philosophical work in our own country, since the publication of Edwards' Treatise on the Will, can be compared with it for the strength with which the most abstruse conceptions are handled, the power of penetration into the intricate workings of our intellectual machinery, and the freedom of the author's motion among the truths and in the atmosphere of Transcendental Metaphysics.

The author is as bold in purpose as he is strong in execution. He proposes and claims to demonstrate what philosophers call "the ontological problem," that is, to prove the validity and accuracy of human knowledge, by showing that the universe is as we perceive it, wearing objective laws that correspond to our subjective ideas. These are his words, quoted from pp. 85 and 86 of the Introduction: "Rational Psychology may subserve the purposes of science in three distinct departments, by affording a position from which skepticism in relation to the valid being of the objects given in each, may be met and counteracted. We have thus three distinct fields for our investigation, and in each of which lie some of the most important questions fundamental for all science. We need to determine the conditional principles of perception in sensation; as the basis of an argument for demonstrating that the objects given in the sense as single qualities and exercises, are valid realities. We

need, moreover, to determine the conditioning principles of all judgements in the understanding; as the ground for demonstrating that the real objects given in sense, and connected in substances and causes, and thus becoming a nature of things, are also valid realities. And then, lastly, we need to determine the conditioning principles of all comprehension of a nature of things in the faculty of the reason; as the ground for a demonstration that the soul in its liberty, and that the Deity in his personality, are valid existences. The Psychology terminates in the science of the faculties of the sense, the understanding and the reason; and when this is made the basis of a further demonstration for the valid being of the objects thus given, the science becomes Ontology."

It will be seen, therefore, that all the energies of Dr. Hickok's philosophy are pledged to the interests of a strictly religious scheme of thought. His ambition is to annihilate naturalism, and by the use of the weapons which the Transcendental philosophers have employed, to exterminate neologies and pantheisms, and enthrone the familiar verities of the Bible over the domain of speculation.

An introduction of ninety pages gives a rapid and strongly drawn sketch of the principles on which the great schools of philosophy have been based, from Socrates to Hegel. Next, the sense faculty is analyzed, and all the categories which rule it detected and announced. Then, the " sense in its objective law" is unfolded, and the conclusion reached that the phenomenal has valid being. This portion of the work is very ably done. The method will bear comparison with Kant's, while Dr. Hickok corrects, as he thinks, Kant's analysis, and thus saves philosophy from the abyss of idealism. The structure and laws of the Understanding and the Reason are investigated in subsequent chapters with reference to their subjective idea and objective law, and finally, an ontological demonstration is offered of the existence of the supernatural.

The plan of the book is bold and its execution worthy of the highest praise; but is it satisfactory? Does it justify its pretension? We cannot think so. Is not the problem itself hopelessly insoluble? How shall we demonstrate the validity of our knowledge, or the trust-worthiness of our perceptions? Can it be done in any other way than by stealing a peep out of ourselves at things for a moment, in order, on returning, to compare the pure fact with our constitutional apprehensions? To study our own faculties, to investigate the structure and laws of the reason and the understanding, to disengage by subtle and patient analysis the portion which the soul supplies to the web of knowledge from the flying woof of sensation; for all this the mind is competent, and it is one of the noblest employments of the intellect. But how shall the intellect demonstrate its own infallibility? It is dangerous to in

volve the fortunes and legitimacy of religion with the success of such an attempt, for that will never succeed until a man shall be able to lift himself in a basket.

True philosophical wisdom consists in never raising the objective problem for the purpose of treating it seriously. If it is once raised and respected, it can never be answered. Let a man bring forward the hypothesis that the whole human race are actually asleep, and that all our present experience is but the procession and concurrence of a thousand million dreams, and what logical confutation can you offer of his assumption? Would not the best answer be that you could use your consciousness of being awake to much better advantage than in trying to prove that you are not asleep? So in philosophy, if a man wants proof that the world is really as we see it, let him hunt for it till he gets tired enough to be willing to start with the assumption that his faculties are trustworthy. The mind endeavoring to assure itself of the validity of its own powers, is like a running wheel that should try to unloose itself from its axle and stop awhile to see itself run. Sir William Hamilton has cut the knot by his statement that our knowledge of the outward world is presentative. This assumes the adequacy of the mind to perceive correctly, and floors the objective problem" by the fists of common sense. We admire the ability and the spirit of Dr. Hickok's book. Its analysis of our intellectual faculties is very valuable. But the ontological demonstrations, like all others that we have seen, are, to our mind, unsuccessful.

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K.

29. Ruth. A Novel. By the author of "Mary Barton." Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields. 1853. 12mo. pp. 400.

Those who have read "Mary Barton " will not need our assurance that "Ruth" is no ordinary novel. The insight it gives of the springs of character, its pictures of common English life, the Christian pity for human infirmity that is breathed through its pages, and the intense moral interest that is imparted to the story, make it one of the most exciting and wholesome works of fiction which England has lately given us. Messrs. Ticknor have published it in very attractive style.

K.

30. Spain; her Institutions, Politics and Public Men. A Sketch. By S. T. Wallis, Author of "Glimpses of Spain." Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields. 1853. 12mo. pp. 399.

The title of this book is not deceptive. It does give a systematic account of the institutions, politics and public men of Spain. The author has twice been a traveller and resident in that country. Several years ago, he published "Glimpses of Spain," which was very favorably received. The materials for this new work were gathered during a residence in the country as an agent for our government,

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