12.-History and General Views of the Sandwich Islands' Mission. By Rev. Sheldon Dibble, a Missionary at those Islands for seven years. New York: Taylor & Dodd, 1839. pp. 268.

This little volume is a tribute of gratitude from the author, to those numerous friends, both at the South and the North, whose hospitality he has enjoyed during a sojourn of about two years in this country, for the benefit of his health, and who in many instances solicited its publication. It is chiefly historical and descriptive, presenting the substance of a series of Lectures prepared by Mr. Dibble and delivered in different places, with the hope of exciting a more enlightened and permanent interest in the cause of Missions. Much of the information contained in it may be gathered from the "Missionary Herald," but it is here presented in a condensed form, and with a completeness which exhibits the story of the mission to the Sandwich Islands, its wonderful success, and the contrast between those Islands as they now are and as they were, only a few years since, more vividly than we have seen it presented in any other work. It is a faithful narrative and a good book.

13.-The Bride of Fort Edward, Founded on an Incident of the Revolution. New York: S. Colman, 1839. pp. 174.

On reading this little volume we could not suppress the remark that the author, who could write so good a book, ought to write a better one. It is the production, we are told, of a lady, whose literary acquisitions are considerable, and who is not wholly unknown to the public, but who has chosen to withhold her name. So, as the web of her discourse is designed to involve the reader in some doubt, as to the whereunto it is tending, she hopes also to heighten his interest in the mystery of the plot, by concealing the hand that weaves it.

Whatever may be thought of the wisdom of this book, as a whole, we think the author has accomplished the very thing she designed. She has seized upon a touching event connected with a well known crisis in the progress of the Revolutionary war, and presents us with a succession of Dialogues, with suitable changes of scene and of persons, in which the actors in that event are made to tell the story of the times to each other. It is an effort of imagination and of genius to copy nature in picturing to the mind's eye the scenes of by-gone 31

SECOND SERIES, VOL. II. NO. IV.

days; and it is a successful effort. The fault we find with the picture is, that it copies nature a little too accurately in some things, and allows the soldiers, now and then, to use profane expressions, which we think might better have been omitted. But the book is exceedingly entertaining, to say the least of it. We commenced the reading, and were so allured from scene to scene, that we had no heart to close it, until we had seen the end. It contains some beautiful passages and sentiments. The following is worth the reading of the book to treasure it up in memory. A frantic mother weeps over her lovely daughter, slain by a cruel death, and says, "Did God, who loves as mothers love their babes, see this! Had I been there with my love, in the heavens, could I have given up this innocent and tender child, a prey to the wild Indians No!-and legions of pitying angels waiting but my word!-No,-no.

"Elliston. Had you been there, from that far centre whence God's eye sees all, you had beheld what lies in darkness here. Forth from this fearful hour, you might have seen peace, like a river, flowing o'er the years to come; and smiles, ten thou sand thousand smiles, down the long ages brightening, sown in this day's tears. Had you been there with God's all-pitying eye, the pitying legions had waited your word in vain; for once, unto a sterner doom, for the world's sake, he gave his Son."

14.-Travels in North America, during the years 1834, 1835, and 1836. Including a Summer-residence with the Pawnee Tribe of Indians, in the remote Prairies of the Missouri, and a Visit to Cuba and the Azore Islands. By the Hon. Charles Augustus Murray. In Two Volumes.

York: Harper & Brothers, 1839. pp. 324, 247.

New

It is interesting and profitable to make the acquaintance of respectable foreigners who visit our country for the purpose of acquiring information; and we love to hear what they say of us when they return home and publish the story of their discoveries and adventures, for the instruction of the old world. Mr. Murray is a gentleman of this class; a Scotchman, who had leisure to protract his stay in the countries he visited, long enough to learn something of the scenes through which he passed. He kept a Journal, which, after some delay, he has published, much in the order in which it was originally written. It is on the whole a sensible book; one of the most respectable works of the kind which we have met with, and may be read with profit by such as have not already had more than

enough of this sort of reading. The residence of the author among the Indians is particularly interesting.

15.-Harper's Family Library No. LXXV.-Animal Mechanism and Physiology; being a plain and familiar Exposi tion of the Structure and Functions of the Human System: designed for the use of Families and Schools. By John H. Griscom, M. D. New-York: Harper & Brothers, 1839. pp. 357.

This work is admirably adapted to the end proposed by the author. It communicates the results of a thorough acquaintance with the subject in a plain and familiar style, and is illustrated with a sufficient number of wood cuts to exhibit the various parts of the human system to the reader in an intelligible manner. We are glad to see the "Family Library" continued by the enterprising publishers by the addition of works so instructive and useful.

16.-Mc Donner: or Truth through Fiction. By Jacob Abbott, Boston Crocker & Brewster, 1839. pp. 283.

Several persons around us read Mc Donner without scarcely rising from their seats. This, it may be said, is an infallible evidence of a novel,-of a fiction in the genuine and naked sense of that term. It may, however, be replied that there is not one word about love in the volume, from beginning to end. A novel does not end legitimately except in the catastrophe of marriage. In the second place, the great object of the work is not to frame a story for the sake of a story. The writer's manifest aim is, not to beguile a passing hour, to amuse a fashionable lady, to arouse the vehement passions of our nature, or even to furnish food for the intellect. His great object is one which lies in the field of practical theology-to show men that they need an atoning Savior and a renovating Spirit, that no efforts of their own to attain salvation will be effectual without almighty aid. These two collateral and connected truths-the need of expiation and the need of sanctification are presented in a very clear and impressive manWe think most decidedly that the reader will carry away a deep moral impression. The story is told with great fidelity to nature. The incidents are narrated just as they occur in real life. The writer has unquestionably seen, or heard, or felt the very things which he describes. At the same time, there is scarcely any thing which is overdrawn.

ner.

The writer avoids the danger of grouping together too many real incidents. What he describes may have occurred in the

exact order in which he narrates them. Who has not been annoyed in a stage-coach with many a grumbler who might have furnished the original of Squire Stock?

17.—The Three Last Things: the Resurrection of the Body, the

Day of Judgment, and Final Retribution, by Rev. Joseph Tracy. Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1839. pp. 104. This book would make an excellent tract for universal cir culation. It is a clear, solemn, and earnest presentation of subjects which deeply concern every human being. It is suf ficiently argumentative, while its practical bearings are most obvious. We cannot forbear strongly to commend it to all with whom our opinion may be of any value.

18.-The Poets of America: Illustrated by one of her Painters. Edited by John Keese. New York: S. Colman, 1840.

pp. 284.

A specimen of this work has been submitted to us by the publisher, which we have examined with pleasure. It is an Annual, "got up" in a style of most exquisite beauty; and, as is usual with publications of this class, it "takes time by the fore lock," and antedates the coming year; that it may be ready, in the tasteful elegance of its costume, to greet the comers thereunto with a smiling welcome.

The volume is wholly composed of short pieces selected from the works of American Poets, whose names are inge niously wrought into the frontispiece. A large number of these effusions of fancy and feeling are accompanied with graceful and delicate sketches designed and executed ex pressly for this work, by one of our most distinguished artists. These are beautiful and spirited illustrations not only of scenes and persons described by the Poets, but also of their elegant imaginings. The writers are Drake, Halleck, Sprague, Woodworth, Bryant, Peabody, Longfellow, Percival, Wilcox, Willis, Dana, Holmes, Pierpont, Hilhouse, Sigourney, Mellen, etc. etc. To speak of each one of this collection of gems would be as useless as it is impossible, in our brief notice. To a lover of poetry, for its own sake, that beautiful and airy imagination, the "Culprit Fay," by Drake, is well worth the price of the book; and he who reads the "Last Leaf," by Holmes, will hardly be willing to lay aside his volume until he has treasured it up in his memory.

ADDITIONAL NOTICES.

The following publications are on hand, some of which will be further noticed hereafter:

The Young Lady's Guide to the Harmonious Development of Christian Character, by Harvey Newcomb. Boston, James B. Dow, 1839.

Tacitus, and Cicero de Oratore, New-Haven Editions, 1839. Poems by W. T. Bacon. New-Haven, B. & W. Noyes, 1839, pp. 214.

Criticisms, Sermons, etc. of Rev. William W. Hunt, with a Brief Memoir. Amherst, J. S. & C. Adams, 1838.

Transplanted Flowers, or Memoirs of Mrs. Rumpff, Daughter of John Jacob Astor, Esq., and the Dutchess de Broglie, Daughter of Madame de Stael: with an Appendix. By Robert Baird. New-York, John S. Taylor, 1839, pp. 159.

The Child's Book of Devotion; or Prayers and Instructions in Verse, suited to the various Relations and Conditions of Childhood and Youth: in Two Parts. By John A. Murray. With an Introduction, by Rev. William Patton, D. D. NewYork, Taylor & Dodd, 1839, pp. 108.

The Military Profession in the United States, and the Means of Promoting its Usefulness and Honor; an Address delivered before the Dialectic Society of the Corps of Cadets of the Military Academy, West Point, at the close of the Annual Examination, June 19, 1839. Ry Benjamin F. Butler. New-York, S. Colman, 1839.

Addresses delivered at the Inauguration of the Professors of Middlebury College, March 18, 1839. Middlebury, 1839, pp. 56. This pamphlet contains the Addresses of four Professors, viz. Messrs. Stoddard, Adams, Twining, and Hough, and contains highly valuable views and suggestions.

An Address delivered in South Hadley, Mass., July 24, 1839, at the Second Anniversary of the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. By Rufus Anderson, D. D. Boston, Perkins & Marvin, 1839.

The College System of Education. A Discourse delivered before the Trustees of Hamilton College, May 8, 1839. By Simeon North, on the occasion of his Inauguration as President of the College. Utica, Bennett & Bright, 1839.

Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America: with an Appendix. New-York, 1839. Rev. Erskine Mason, D. D. Stated Clerk.