on the subject of sound. "In sound, the specific determination belonging to a body in virtue of its specific gravity and cohesion, the internal form merged in the materially multiple existence, is liberated by the negative of its substantial multiplicity. Sound is a transition of material spatiality into material temporality. The multiplicity is annulled, and this annulment is again annulled; there is alternately a negation, and a negation of this negation, an oscillation between the subsistence and annihilation of specific gravity and cohesion, in which the ideality of the Material becomes phenomenal." The following sentences, from another part of the volume, we suppose to have reference to the being of God. "The Eternal is therefore the zero of nature, and from it every thing temporal, finite, proceeds. The first discession of zero is that into +; the self-definition of the Eternal. and are, as it were, the spirits of all numbers; every number is only a successive position of + or -. The numbers are acts of the primitive idea, of zero, which is not absolute naught, but an ideal act without substratum. This primitive act has a twofold tendency; that of affirming and that of denying itself. + is the self-position of 0; but being nothing else than 0 in position, must return thither, which takes place through the medium of. The act of affirmative position is therefore simultaneously that of negation; the 0, when existing, is necessarily +. The realization of the Eternal is therefore its own antithesis. 0 is; not +or. ** The Deity is essentially a Trinity: 0 +- Since every individual thing or being is but the uttered thought of that Trinity, and the Deity's thoughts are acts of self-consciousness-since the Deity thinks only itself -it follows that every individual thing or being must also exhibit a Trinity, and that every individual act must be a repetition of the primitive act. The forms corresponding respectively to 0 +- are rest, motion and extension (form, solidity)." 10. = The Life, Letters and Remains of the Rev. Robert Pollok, A. M., Author of The Course of Time," and " Tales of the Covenanters." By JAMES SCOTT, D. D., pastor of the First Reformed Dutch church, Newark, N. J. New York. Robert Carter. 1848. pp. 364. 12mo. We have read this biography of the author of the "Course of Time," with sincere satisfaction. The writer had the best opportunity of becoming familiar with his subject, through an intimate friend of Pollok, by visiting the localities alluded to in the poem, and through a life of the poet by his brother, David Pollok, issued in Scotland in 1843. He is filled with enthusiasm for his subject, and writes with keen discernment, refined taste and elevated piety. The exquisite beauty of some of his passages shows him to be a man of true poetic feeling, and a poet in the best sense of the word. The work explains many allusions in various parts of the "Course of Time," to scenery, persons and events connected with Pollok's personal history, and is almost indispensable to an intelligent reading of that great production. We sincerely commend it to the notice of the public. The life of Pollok had but few incidents to give it interest, and most of those incidents cluster around two or three points in his history. 39* VOL. XIII.NO. LI. He was born at North Moorhouse, Renfrewshire, Oct. 19, 1798, and died Sept. 18, 1827, before he had completed his twenty-ninth year. The following extract shows the character of the period in which he came upon the stage, and at the same time exhibits the style of the author of the Memoir. "The period in which Pollok appeared was one of uncommon intellectual splendor. The harp of Burns, the real Shakspeare of Scotland, was yet vibrating with his last inspirations. Cowper's 'Castaway' thrilled the admirers of the 'Task.' The hand which had struck the Northern Harp and produced the Minstrel,' was just palsied. Crabbe, Wordsworth, Scott, Coleridge, Southey, Campbell, Byron, Shelly, Keats, Moore, and others of immortal name, were all living at the time in the island of Albion. Never before had the English muse such a faculty of bards. It was in this brilliant constellation of poetic stars that Pollok arose and shone. "Scotland, too, is to a mental portraiture of the author of The Course of Time,' what background is to the landscape. It gives a coloring to every characteristic of his genius. Its history, poetry, philosophy, legend, scenery, sons, daughters and religion, are the manycolored rainbow which span his whole life. They are the warp and woof of his song. Scotland is to him a land suggestive and fruitful of ideas. His visions are of her eventful story. Her solitudes are the places where nature sowed, herself, and reaped her crops.' 'Her brooks' were his minstrels,' her moon and stars' his lamps; her 'thunderbolts' his orators; and her everlasting hills' his rural pal aces. "The Course of Time' is a poem, too, which hangs alone in the gallery of the epoch. The most beautiful and finished of the others appertain to earth; this alone is a heavenly song. Scott had struck the Harp of the North' to chivalry and love. Byron worshipped at the shrine of the classic muse, and embroidered his songs with eastern garlands. Shelly sung of Deism, Southey of Pantheism, while Pollok undaunted arose and touched a holy harp which God had put into his hands.' The heart of religious Scotland was instantly moved by his numbers. It is impossible to look back over that tract of time without feeling that the Course of Time' appeared on the earth and testified in behalf of the remedial scheme. It was a canticle about the God of the Bible; rich, too, with the jewels of the gospel, as well as gorgeous with the colorings of earth's most variegated scenery." Robert Pollok was the seventh child of his parents. They seem to have been poor, but pious, not versed in the acquisitions of human learning, but profoundly familiar with the word of God and the doctrines therein unfolded. "They held the Calvinistic scheme to be the only one revealed." And, such was the pulpit of Scotland in that day, that the peasant and the noble alike entered into the mysteries of the theological and philosophical discussions in which the men of science engaged. The influence of maternal training on the mind of the young poet was of the most distinct as well as salutary kind. In speaking of the theological views exhibited in his poem, he writes to his brother as follows: "It has my mother's divinity, the divinity she taught me when a boy. I may have amplified it from what I learned afterwards; but in writing the poem I always found hers formed the ground-work, the point from which I set out. I always drew on hers first, and I was never at a loss; this shows what kind of a divine she was.' There are few items on record in reference to Pollok's early life. It is very evident, however, that almost from his infancy his mind showed tokens of that keen sensitiveness and deep affection, which thrilled in his later life, and prepared the way for the divine afflatus which resulted in his great poem. When an infant brother died, at the age of two years and eight months, our poet, though only in the seventh year of his age, is said to have given way to a grief more inconsolable than any one else."He wept one entire day, refusing to be solaced; nor did the tide of bitterness then ebb away; on the contrary, for weeks afterwards, dejection and melancholy were visible on his countenance. Nor can we hesitate to believe," adds the author, "that the impressions and cogitations connected with that event became the centres of innumerable trains of thought, which afterwards grew out of his soul like leaves, buds, blossoms and flowers." During the poet's last year at school, he laid aside almost at once his impetuosity and irritability, and became sober, dignified and selfpossessed. This change, he afterwards informed his brother, arose from the impression produced on his mind by reading the four gospels. Soon after this he was solicited by his brother-in-law, who was a cabinet-maker, to reside with him and learn his trade. He consented to undertake the business, but only remained long enough to make four chairs. He assigned as a reason for leaving it, that he could not bind himself to a trade which did not require thought. He liked the making of the first three chairs well enough, but he could make the fourth without thinking. He now remained for a season on the farm at Moorland, diligently perusing, as opportunity occurred, such books as were furnished by the domestic library. In the spring of 1815, his sister, who had been married a year before, died. This event made a strong impression upon his mind, and, in connection with his early religious instruction, and the reading of the gospels before alluded to, was sanctified to his conversion. Not long afterwards, he and his brother David resolved to devote themselves to the Christian ministry. They commenced preparation for the University Dec. 2, 1815, and finished their preparatory studies in July, 1817. After three months more spent in private classical study, Pollok entered the University of Glasgow. During his connection with that seat of learning, he was distinguished for his rank and scholarship, and also occasionally wrote poetry. In the spring of 1821 he made a public profession of religion, and so far as can be learned, ever adorned his profession. As a student, he was extremely diligent, faithful and prudent. He preferred the society of his books to the promiscuous familiarity of a large city; and what is remarkable, he made the acquaintance of only a single family, while he was a student at Glasgow. In 1822 he commenced the study of divin ity at Glasgow-there a four years' course-and in due time completed his studies with honor. He was never honored by the great Head of the church with a parochial charge. After finishing his literary and theological career, he preached but four times; and then, through feeble health he left the pulpit, never to return to it again. The gospel trumpet fell from his lips, a heavenly harp was put into his hands, and he went up, to join the worship before the throne of God. The principles which were infused into his mind by maternal instruetion, and with which he entered upon the responsible work of an ambassador of souls, may be inferred from the following note, written by him as an amanuensis to his mother, to his brother David. It was dated in April, 1825, a few weeks before she died. "Our mother is very weak, and wishes me to tell you that she has little expectation of regaining health. She came into the room a few moments ago with your letter in her hand, and wished me to tell you that she had read it all over and over again, with great satisfaction. She wishes to say farther, that it should be the great business of all, and especially of those who profess to teach others, to set forth in their doctrines and conduct, the loveliness, beauty, and condescension of Jesus Christ. These,' she says, are most astonishing; the tongues of men and angels will never be able to speak half their praise.' It is her desire that you may, just like the old apostle Paul, determine not to know any thing in preaching, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. She adds, this is the main thing; other things are useful, but whoever wants this, I am afraid his speed will not be great. I am extraordinarily pleased that you both seem to be sound on this point. I cannot use words sufficient to recommend to you the loveliness, beauty and condescension of Christ; but I have thought often about it, that the Creator should become man for the sake of sinners! Surely, such infinite love will never be manifested again. Let it be the business of your lives to set it forth. It can never be praised enough. It gave me wonderful satisfaction to think that he (meaning you) conducts himself becomingly. I wished to say this much, and it is all I have to say; and I think it better that you write it to him than to wait till he come. Perhaps I might not be able to say it then.'" The principal works of Pollok were "Helen of the Glen," "The Persecuted Family," "Ralph Gemmell," "Tales of the Covenanters," and "The Course of Time." He was urged to the pains and penalties of authorship by pecuniary necessity, which often pressed on him with a crushing burden. It was under such a pressure that he wrote the first of these works, within the space of a single week, in May, 1823. The second and third were completed in the same year; and it was early in the year 1824, just as he was convalescing from his first attack of a consumptive disorder, that he took the manuscripts of them up to Edinburgh, hoping to sell them to advantage to some of the booksellers. But, as is the fate of most authors, one of them was, for a time, wholly declined, and he was obliged to sell the other for a mere pittance. One of the most interesting portions of this volume is that which describes the development of the plan of the " Course of Time," explains its allusions, and details the throes by which it was ushered into the world. We are unable to follow him through the whole. But the following extract gives an account of the origin of the work. It was commenced by him while a student in divinity at Glasgow. "One night in December, 1824, in the city of Glasgow, Robert Pollok lifted a book from his table, which happened to be Hartley's Oratory,' a collection of pieces in prose and verse. In turning the leaves over, his eye fell on Byron's piece entitled Darkness,' and while reading it, the idea of the Resurrection was suggested to him. On laying the book down, the plan of a poem on the Resurrection succeeded this first idea, when he suddenly seized a pen, and wrote a portion of what is the seventh book of the Course of Time,' beginning with this line: 'In costumed glory bright, that morn the sun "At intervals during several successive weeks, he revolved his plan, and had written at least one thousand lines, when it was thought expedient for him to remove to Moorhouse, to be near his mother, who was dying of consumption. One night, shortly after his return there, while sitting alone, cogitating at midnight, the present plan of the poem suddenly burst on his mind; a continent of thought arose and stood before him." The poem seems, as our biographer intimates, to be a contrast to Byron's" Darkness;"-the poem of the infidel recast in a Christian mould. The one showed how an atheist could write; the other, how a Christian, drawing his inspiration from a living, loving Divinity, could surpass him. He continued the poem at intervals, as his health and his theological studies permitted him, and in the Memoir before us we see how the work was built up, from the foundation to the architrave. At one period, pecuniary necessity tempted him to publish the first three books separately. In this, however, he was stoutly opposed by his brother, and relinquished the plan. The letter of his brother seems to have put new life into his declining spirit, and encouraged him to proceed. In his reply, dated May 28, 1826, he says— "You know that my desire is to finish the poem in which I am engaged, before intermeddling with any other concern. But you know also that to enable me to do this would require a considerable quantity of money; besides, when the work is finished, its success, at least, as far as money is concerned, is very uncertain. Now, were I to keep back from holy orders after so long a preparation, and at the same time be gaining nothing, what would be the cry of those who already reproach me with my indolence? My money embarrassments, added to these ideas, make it difficult for me to pursue a work with calmness and serenity, difficult, I say, but not impossible; for since your letter reached me, I have trampled many of those perplexing thoughts beneath my feet. It is not the assistance which you meditate, for you must not involve yourself on my account, but the spirit which it breathes. I feel as if I had all your vigor and fortitude added to my own. My resolution was wavering, my thoughts were driving at random, and my whole mental energies were dispersed and scattered, when your letter, |