How solemnly has he illustrated in mination of his own life! his own brief history, that our 66 days upon earth are indeed a shadow!" And may God in the goodness of His grace grant, that neither the all-concerning truth, nor the mournful illustration of it, be lost upon us. Dr. Carpenter's Harmony of the Gospels. Second Edition. London. 8vo. pp. clxii. 307. - We announce with pleasure the arrival of a number of copies of the second edition of Dr. Carpenter's Harmony of the Gospels, which are now for sale at the Bookstore of James Munroe & Co. The review of the first edition of this work, which appeared in our Number for March, 1837, is kindly acknowledged by Dr. Carpenter in his preface, and alluded to elsewhere in the present edition. The Dedication to the Queen, which excited, on its appearance, such an outbreak of jealousy and spleen in certain quarters of the Establishment, is expressed in a strain of simple and respectful manliness. Some alterations and additions have been made in the work, but it remains substantially the same as before. To those who are interested in the study of the Scriptures, whether ministers, teachers of youth, or others, we unhesitatingly recommend it, as the most valuable book of its kind. We Woman as she should be. I. The Appropriate Sphere of Woman. II. The Influence of Christianity on Woman. III. The Christian Education of Woman. By Rev. HUBBARD WINSLOW. Also, Woman in her Social and Domestic Character. By Mrs. JOHN SANDFORD. From the Fifth London Edition. Boston: Otis, Broaders & Co. 1838. 12mo. pp. 81,— 175. In whatever way or degree we might differ from Mr. Winslow on some points of theology, his views and doctrines with regard to the character, influence, place, and duties of woman, as set forth in this volume, meet with our hearty concurrence. look on them as highly sound and orthodox. His thoughts on these subjects are judicious, practical, answering to the truth of things; and the style, in which they are expressed, is direct, simple, energetic. We cannot be at a loss to understand what he thinks of those females, who would push themselves and their sex forward into public meetings and affairs. He treats them with very little ceremony. And yet he would have females learn much, know much, and do much. What all this is, must be ascertained from his volume, in which it is made quite apparent that he entertains no reverence for a slothful woman. The style of Mrs. Sanford's work is more graceful, more finished, more feminine, as it ought to be, than Mr. Winslow's ; but her sentiments harmonize well with his, and the two treatises are fitly bound together. As we have already published a favorable notice of a former edition of her book, in our number for May, 1833, we shall only say now, that our opinion of its merit remains unchanged. : The Young Lady's Aid to Usefulness and Happiness. By JASON WHITMAN. Portland S. H. Colesworthy. 1838. 12mo. pp. 216. This volume is another faithful and sensible exposition of the appropriate duties of females. It was originally prepared in the form of lectures, addressed to the young ladies of the author's parish in Portland; which lectures now appear in the form of letters. These letters are six in number, and bear the following titles. I. The Influence of Christianity upon the Condition of Females. II. The Requirements of Christianity at the hand of females. III. Duty before Pleasure. IV. Intellectual Improvement. V. Intellectual Improvement. VI. Female Influence. On these topics Mr. Whitman has, as he says in his preface," written straight on," using much plainness of speech, bautified by kindness of heart and gentleness of spirit. His work will not, any more than Mr. Winslow's, aid females in becoming generals, or senators, or officers of abolition societies; but, if it is read with candor, it will be true to its title, and prove their effectual Aid to Usefulness and Happiness. EDITORIAL NOTICE. THE Editors of the Christian Examiner give notice that they resign their responsibility as such, with the publication of the present number. They take this occasion to thank those friends by whose contributions their task has been rendered light, and their subscribers and readers who have so constantly extended to them their approbation or indulgence. As they feel the liveliest interest in the success of the work which has for the last eight years been under their charge, it gives them sincere pleasure to be able to state that its editorship is transferred into the hands of the Rev. WILLIAM WARE, a gentleman who needs no introduction to the religious and literary community, by whom he is already so well known and appreciated. THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER. No. XCII. THIRD SERIES-No. XXIII. MAY, 1839. ART. I. Life of Joseph Brant, - Thayendanegea: including the Border Wars of the American Revolution, and Sketches of the Indian Campaigns of Generals Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne, and other matters connected with the Indian relations of the United States and Great Britain, from the Peace of 1783 to the Indian Peace of 1795. By WILLIAM L. STONE. New York: A. V. Blake & Co. 1838. A CRITIC, disposed to be captious, might possibly suggest an amendment in the ample description of Mr. Stone's volumes cited above in the form of a title. He would surmise, even before reading them, that they might, with quite equal propriety, have been called a History including a Life, or a Life including a History. Nor can we predict that the force of this stricture would be abated after an examination of the contents of the work, so comparatively subordinate a share of his space has the author suffered his hero to occupy. During the whole of some chapters, and those not remarkable for laconicism, Brant never makes his appearance, even to be once named. Indeed, this arrangement is honestly avowed in the Introduction, where we are told that, in 1832, the design, "enlarged by reflection and research, now began to comprehend a history of the Six Nations, &c.; the settlement of the country by the pale faces; a history of the French War, so far as that memorable contest was connected with the Indians and colony of New York; together, or rather blended with, the lives of Sir William JohnVOL. XXVI. -3D S. VOL. VIII. NO. II. 18 son and Joseph Brant." This plan appears to have been closely prosecuted, apparently making the Indian Chieftain (so far as this prospectus at least is concerned,) by no means sole monarch over the ground of the narrative, but rather a joint-possessor, with another personage who is ranked before him, of the biographical department allotted to the two, -a sort of Indian Reservation, in a work which is mainly historical and general, instead of either personal or local, after all. Subsequently, in the Introduction, it is stated that the work embraces two epochs, implying respective divisions; the one "the early history referred to, with a history of the French War and the country to the death of Sir William Johnson," at which period Brant barely makes his appearance; and the other" the Life of Brant, and the Revolutionary, Indian, and Tory wars of the northern and western part of the state of New York." And again, "It has been the object of the author to render it not only a local, but, to a certain extent, a brief general history of the war of the Revolution;" in other words, a particular history, ample in its details, of the belligerent events occurring at the west of Albany," with "birds-eye glimpses of all the principal military operations of the whole contest." Such is the author's description of the work he entitles the Life of Brant. But whatever may be said of the strict application of this title to such a composition, that question has nothing to do with the more important one which relates to the merits of the composition itself. Of these we believe but one general opinion has been, or can be, pronounced, that it is one of the most valuable and the most interesting of the contributions ever made to American Annals. This is high praise, we know, but it is not unadvisedly uttered, as we may have some occasion to show. Neither is it bestowed irrespective of the faults of the work, or of what are sometimes considered to be such. We bear in mind, for example, the complaints which the reviewers generally have made of its miscellaneous and voluminous character, as above described. This criticism, however, does not seem to us very profound. It amounts to little more than a criticism on the wording of the title, (as we have hinted already,) not on the merits of the work. The complaint is not, that the Life of Brant is not, as we have called it, a valuable and an interesting book, but that it was not, and is not, truly described by the author; that it holds out what a lawyer would call "false pretences," though we by no means intend to intimate furthermore, in like style, that he was instigated thereto by any malice aforethought or felonious intent. The plea is one in amendment, not in abatement of the writ. No one objects to the History of the Border Wars of and before the Revolution; no one to the running accompaniment to the Life in question of these "bird's-eye glimpses" over the field of the general contest. The latter, in our opinion, was mainly indispensable. The former, on the other hand, is subservient in so remarkable a degree to the complete appreciation and lively enjoyment of the biographical portion of the work, that no liberal reader, we think, would be willing either to lose the benefit and interest of it altogether, or to be compelled to resort to a separate composition for what is now so important a part of this. - Such, at least, must be the general impression. It is not pretended that the author has perfectly succeeded in the execution of this design. It would be extraordinary, indeed, if, with so vast a mass of material as he has brought together and wrought over in this scheme, so heterogeneous - much of it so original, he should leave no room for just strictures on the admission or the arrangement of his details. Obvious improvements in these respects doubtless remain to be made; so obvious that the author would hardly thank us for pointing them out. None of them, however, appear to us very important, after all. Perhaps the greatest error has been the introduction of too great a quantity of old Indian speeches, without so severe a regard to their intrinsic interest or correlative value as might have been desired. The dullest of them, we are aware, have their worth in the historian's and the philosopher's estimation. If the work of Mr. Stone had professedly been written for such readers alone, or chiefly, the criticism in question would probably never have been made. The error, in fact, would not have existed. It is, in other words, an error merely in reference to the success, the popularity, of the book. The great majority of its readers, we apprehend, will turn over the leaves comprising these speeches, as they would those comprising a multitude of more modern, and perhaps more civilized ones, which we wot of; whereas, there is no doubt, Mr. Stone, like the orators referred to, intended that the speeches should be read, nay, admired, for aught we know, exalted above all Greek, all Roman fame. The author is enthusiastic on this |