haustive argument. Here is a candid, honest, and devoted teacher in an evangelical sect who has come, in the exercise of his work as a teacher, to reject utterly the prevalent idea of the Bible as literally inspired, or in any sense "infallible," and who now finds no inspiration of any kind, either in the statements of the book or the souls of the writers, which guarantees their freedom from error. Thirty years ago the most liberal of the sects would have hesitated in approving such a volume. Now this view of inspiration finds general favor, or is very gently condemned. It is not proposed to cast the author out of the church, to deny him the Christian name, or to indict him for blasphemy. In substance, his view is not unlike that of Theodore Parker; yet his work will not be classed with the works of that arch-heretic, or be enrolled for anathema in any Evangelical Index.

The style of argument which Dr. Curtis prefers is that which Bishop Colenso has used with such great effect. He dwells most upon the discrepancies, the mistakes, the physical and numerical impossibilities recorded in the Biblical text, as proof that this cannot be the word of Deity, but only the words of erring men. Neither the unscientific legends of the Genesis nor the varying accounts of the four Evangelists can be reconciled with the theory of a plenary Divine dictation. He shows that the popular view assumes what the Scriptures never claim for themselves: that it requires a perpetual miracle, not only that the original Greek and Hebrew, but that all the translations, shall be inspired. This reduction to absurdity might have been carried much further. But he has carried the argument far enough for his purpose. He has amply proved his negative.

In stating and explaining his positive view of inspiration, Dr. Curtis is not, as we think, so satisfactory. He fails to show what new faculty inspiration adds to ordinary human faculties, or how much more trustworthy is an inspired writer than any other writer. He does not point out distinctly the way in which a writer of history learns the facts of his history by inspiration, or a dogmatic writer receives instruction from on high in the matter of his doctrines. Inspiration, as he presents it, seems to be a vague influence upon the mind, or, rather, upon the will, giving only more conscientiousness and fidelity both in seeking and in uttering what is believed to be the truth.

Dr. Curtis gives no general and external test by which inspired men are to be distinguished from other men. We have no talk in his book about "credentials," and he does not insist that physical signs and wonders are necessary or decisive proof that any teacher is directly sent of God. He leaves us to infer that the claim of the Roman Church that inspiration is perpetual is a just claim, and he does not forbid us to al

low that influence in other ways than the ways of theological writing; we are permitted to believe that the influence is neither special nor limited to any age of the world or any class of persons. The impression which the volume gives is, that the truth and beauty of any work is the measure of its inspiration as well as the measure of its value. So far as Biblical criticism is concerned, inspiration may be wholly ruled out. It is of no help whatever in finding the meaning of a passage. So far as creed-making is concerned, it is equally unnecessary. It cannot tell us whether any doctrine is true or false. Its merit is in bringing, or appearing to bring, the soul of man into closer relations with the Spirit of God, — the Divine element more into human thought and human affairs.

Such works as this of Dr. Curtis are excellent as overthrowing that false reverence for the letter of Scripture, which makes it the arbiter of justice against social expediency, common sense, and kind feeling. But they are far less influential in that direction than the very arguments of the bibliolatrists in questions of practical ethics. The defences of slavery from the letter of the Bible, the pleas against amusements, the Sabbath arguments, the arguments from Scripture about women's rights, about wine drinking, about the death penalty, — these have done far more to discredit the theory of Biblical inspiration than any such writings as those of Curtis or Colenso. The whole New Testament has suffered from the false reading of the letter of Paul to Philemon. The attempt to hinder horse-cars from running on Sunday by citing Biblical prohibitions not only always fails, but it reacts against the Scripture. The book cannot be the Word of God which sets itself so positively against human need and convenience. The extent of rebellion against the former theory is proved by the little heed which is now paid in legislative halls to these Scripture pleadings. They have hardly more force in making or repealing laws than they have in scientific discussions. The curse of Canaan had no more weight with Mr. Lincoln when he wrote his Proclamation, than it has with Professor Owen when he discusses ethnology. The inspiration which Congress respects is the voice of the Lord to-day in the nation and for its needs.

The closing chapter of Dr. Curtis's work on the evidence for Christianity from its effect upon human life and social customs, good as it is, is wholly irrelevant, and has nothing to do with his subject. There is no need to connect the existence of Christianity with any argument about the Bible. The idlest of fears is that the real Gospel of Jesus will be jeopardized by any theory of the origin or the value of the written record. The loss of the Bible altogether would not be the loss of the Gospel. But the overthrow of false notions about it will not

consign it to obscurity or give it any second place. The freest speculations of rationalism have not as yet diminished the honor paid to the chief of books. The Bible Society is quite as busy with its presses and its editions, in all civilized and savage tongues, as it was before Renan or Strauss uttered their dreadful words of denial. Men study the Bible more willingly and more faithfully when they are allowed to distinguish in it what is true from what is false, than when they are warned at the outset that it is all infallibly true. There never was a time in the history of Christianity when there was so much real "searching" of the Scripture as the time in which we are living. Investigation now assists and guides exposition.

The proof-reader of Dr. Curtis's work has been strangely careless, and the typographical mistakes are numerous and annoying. "Ephraim Cyrus" (p. 127) for Ephrem Syrus, "Mahaleel" for Mahalaleel, "Sala" for Salah, "Armenian" for Arminian, "Bauer" for Baur, "Intillege" for Intellige, "Baruck" for Baruch, "Brounson" for Brownson, "Belgiam" for Belgian, "Thedoret" for Theodoret, "Cephatopoda" for Cephalopoda, "Saurord" for Sauroid, “Aquilla" for Aquila," Arphaxed" for Arphaxad, "insurperable" for insuperable, are only a part of the misprints that we have noted. sionally the Greek words are without their proper accents.

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5. Angelic Philosophy of the Divine Love and Wisdom. EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. Translated by R. N. FOSTER. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1867.

THE publishers of this new and beautiful edition of one of Swedenborg's chief treatises are engaged in reproducing all his books in greatly improved form. Men of sense and scholarship preside over the enterprise, so that we have a chance at last of seeing Swedenborg in a free and graceful English dress, without having our taste shocked any longer by the rudenesses and awkwardnesses of a mere conventional terminology. It is very sad that any one should ever be compelled to look at the catholic Swedenborg in translations intended originally for the uses of a sect; for, however unconscious of any improper bias the translator may be, and however disposed as he himself conceives to act honestly, the very fact that he is a man of sectarian aims disqualifies him fully to understand Swedenborg, or do adequate justice to his thought, and renders it inevitable that he should to some extent mislead the reader. We hail this new edition of Swedenborg, therefore, as free from the stigma of these influences. Rev. Mr. Barrett,

under whose editorial supervision chiefly the works are being issued, is a man of scholarly culture and of wide sympathies; and we are sure that nothing of which the unprejudiced reader can have the least right to complain will ever creep into them with his connivance. He has himself virtually translated the "Heaven and Hell" anew; and now Mr. Foster, who seems an every way competent and finished translator, has given us what may be called Swedenborg's most philosophic production in a dress worthy of its contents.

The Divine Love and Wisdom" is a deeply interesting book, almost the only one in which Swedenborg has attempted a direct and comprehensive exposition of ontological principles; and it is all-important that a man of ample scholarship, and as ample breadth of sympathy with his kind, should be employed to reproduce it in English. We commend the book to the attention of every one who wishes to learn something about Swedenborg from the author himself, and not from any purely parasitic testimony. It is, indeed, high time that the pretence of a peculiar property in Swedenborg, and of a right to use his books in the interest exclusively of a new and narrower ecclesiasticism, should be universally derided and exploded; and we are glad to perceive the vigorous movement in this direction which is being made under Mr. Lippincott's auspices in Philadelphia. His new edition of Swedenborg is not only vastly corrected and improved in point of translation, but is issued in beautiful mechanical form, and ought to supersede every other.

6.

Dissertations and Discussions; Political, Philosophical, and Historical. By JOHN STUART MILL. Vol. IV. Boston: William V. Spencer. 1867.

THE time has gone by when it would be thought necessary to introduce Mr. Mill to the readers of America, or of any other civilized country. Mr. Mill's reputation rests upon a foundation too strong to be shaken, upon an eminence too conspicuous to need pointing out. Few names are more frequently in the mouths of those who deal seriously with philosophical or practical subjects; the opinions of few great writers have been, during their lifetime, so heartily welcomed, so often quoted, or so respectfully disputed. This early attainment of such widespread celebrity is, in Mr. Mill's case, due partly to the fact that he has not confined himself to abstract subjects, but has written with equal ability about matters of immediate importance to every one; partly to his exceeding sobriety and discipline of mind, which prevents him from ever running unguardedly into vagaries. Indeed, if we were

required to note down in a single word the most striking characteristic of Mr. Mill's mind, we should say, "Discipline." The pupil of Bentham and James Mill - men who knew what thorough mental training is, if they knew nothing else—has received from education a very unusual share of the benefits which it can be made to yield. The time usually spent in aimless experimenting or stupid gerund-grinding, Mr. Mill evidently devoted to the acquisition of logical methods wherewith to approach and take possession of all departments of knowledge, one after another. If special proof of this assertion were needed, it might be found in that superb Inaugural Address which happily has been reprinted in the present volume, and which is, on the whole, the most complete and satisfactory of all Mr. Mill's productions. He has written other works which are far more massive in their greatness, and which from the mere volume of the thought in them have influenced, and are likely to influence, subsequent thinking in a greater variety of ways; but he has never treated any subject more thoroughly, with more admirable catholicity of spirit, more stirring eloquence, or more convincing force of argument, than he has treated the subject of university education in this Inaugural Address. There is nothing one-sided in it, nothing which smacks of the pedant ignoring the value of everything which he has not seen fit to employ his time about. Each science, physical or moral, obtains its due share of recognition : from mathematics to æsthetic art, nothing is forgotten or flippantly touched upon. The speaker has not derived his knowledge from hearsay; he understands from his own experience, the kind and amount of discipline which may be got from the proper study of each of the objects of study.

a man who had far soul" of genius, who

To this thoroughgoing and universal discipline much of Mr. Mill's solid reputation is owing. It has enabled him to advance securely and successfully where thinkers of greater power and clearer native insight have stumbled into absurdity or extravagance. Comte, for instance, a more acute and original thinker than Mr. Mill, more of what Mr. Dallas would call the "hidden solved most brilliantly many problems which his follower would probably have been unable to solve, -appears often at a great disadvantage owing to his lack of control over his own mind. He runs into all sorts of vagaries, neglects the steady-going objective method of verification which he has himself done so much to establish, and revels in absurdity with a rigorous consistency of deduction hardly surpassed by Hegel; and all because of his inability to say to his own mind what he would often so gladly say to the human mind in general, "Thus far shalt thou go, and no further." In contrast to this, it is Mr. Mill's