that is offensive in Fox. The language is pure, and the comments few and charitable, especially for one so hostile to Roman power and priestcraft. We remember no book that presents in a better form, within the same compass, a fair history of the martyrdom of Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley, and many less known. And excepting a few phrases, always to be expected, there is nothing doctrinal or sectarian that should prevent its free use. The preface to the American edition, by Bickerstell, is more questionable than anything in the book.-The "Siege of Derry" is a sort of historical romance, giving, in the experience of a single family, a graphic and thrilling description of one of the most remarkable events in the range even of religious war. If any one would understand the power of principle and endurance in Protestant sufferers, or the temper of Popish persecutors, within no remote period, let him read this account of the protracted siege, and incredible woes, and seemingly superhuman deliverance of the little town of Derry. The writer's strong predilections may have betrayed her into some exaggeration, on either side. We cannot assert the contrary; neither can we endorse all the reasoning and conclusions against the arch-enemy, whom she never forgets and never spares - Popery. But we know she is not capable of a conscious misstatement; and making only the allowance that is always to be made for religious prejudice, we believe the book to be as valuable as it is interesting. Some sketches of Irish character, and instances of Popish superstition and power, might well be quoted. But we must pass to the remaining division of these voluminous writings.

Theological. As before, the word is used for convenience, not for exact definition. We have seen no system, no creed or criticism, from this author, that can be called strictly theological. She does not pretend to be an expositor or controversialist. She disclaims all knowledge of theological works, and implies as to all disputed points, as she says expressly of Election, when urged by opponents to read various treatises" pro or con, no treatises have I read." Her religious reading seems to be confined exclusively to the Bible. Of this no one could complain, if she did not at the same time pronounce so dogmatically on the meaning of portions of the Bible, which have been always in

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dispute, and are allowed by all to require some study of the principles of interpretation, and some knowledge of external authorities and facts. Unless Charlotte Elizabeth is sure that her own reason is a safe interpreter of God's words and ways, unless indeed she claims a portion of that infallibility the pretension to which she so abhors in the Church of Rome, we see not how she attains such absolute confidence, or expects others to repose this confidence, in her interpretation of the oldest writings in the world, or her application to passing events of the most remote predictions, the faintest types, and the boldest figures. Yet such is her theology. We have no faith in it, and we do not attempt either to refute or explain it. It is bald Calvinism, and that is enough. It is so utterly unscriptural and irrational, that it has no power to disturb us; and we read the much that is true and excellent in these volumes, with scarcely a thought of the rest. There is however one feature of this system, as here presented, which does surprise us. It makes the entire subject of a large volume, the only one that can be further considered.

It is the volume which stands second in the list given at the head of this article "Principalities and Powers in Heavenly Places." This and the "Personal Recollections" are the most important of this lady's productions. The latter, we venture to say, will always be read, as a natural, spirited, and most interesting specimen of autobiography, with all its faults. But the "Principalities and Powers" will have a shorter life and a more limited interest, unless we mistake the signs of intellectual and religious progress. A whole book, based on the assumption, and devoted to the elucidation, of the personal existence, the literal presence, the infernal, unalloyed malignity, the supernatural and universal agency, we might almost say, the omniscience and omnipotence, of Satan, with his army of fellow-demons, well marshalled, ever active, obedient to their commander, hovering over all human souls, penetrating all common and sacred retreats, wielding all weapons, approaching us in every disguise, besetting the path of every spirit from the cradle to the grave, warring, always wrathfully and cunningly, often successfully, against Christ, truth, aspiration, and Almighty God! We do not wonder, that a writer in the "Christian Review," who notices this work favorably, 4TH S. VOL. IV. NO. I.

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and thinks it needed and useful, is yet constrained to say, that any one who should fall in with all her views, would be apt to ascribe too much of the evil of his own heart to outward influences; "would make Satan a convenient sort of scape-goat, bearing all his sins." It has always been a marvel to us, that those who believe in the original and total corruption of our nature, should think it also necessary to fill the external world, the air, the street, the school, the closet, the temple, and the whole earth, with evil spirits and pursuing demons, to tempt and try us enough for the Creator's purpose! A truce to the charge, that we think too well of our nature, and too little of the tempter. We think too much of the tempter within, to look abroad for invisible agents, or listen to the whispers of possible fiends. Believing neither in native depravity nor native holiness, but in vast capacities of good and evil, with passions of tremendous force and fire, appetites and senses long predominant before reason and conscience can rule, placed in a world of conflicting elements and designed probation, among men of all characters from the best to the worst, and at best frail, ignorant and erring, while all history and experience show the frightful prevalence and power of selfishness and lust, avarice and ambition - we find temptations enough, and our sins, countless and enormous as they are, sufficiently explained, without laying the burden of proof or the load of guilt either upon Adam or Satan.

We are not discussing the question of the existence of evil spirits. We believe in the existence and ministry of good angels, and we find in the Scriptures reference to bad angels also, one of whom is represented as chief, the personification and prince of evil. That much of the language so used is figurative, we know; though it does not follow that all of it is. When Christ said to his disciples

"Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil," when he says to Peter, "Get thee behind me, Satan," and when again he describes the infirm woman as one "whom Satan hath bound these eighteen years," it is not easy to give the word "Satan" the usual terrible signification. And it is to be hoped that Paul meant to be understood in some qualified sense, where he declares he has delivered certain men unto Satan. To say nothing of

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the metaphor and imagination of the East, similar language is sometimes used now without the least idea of literalness. Nor are any terms used in Scripture to portray Satan, stronger than those which ascribe to the Deity human organs and passions, making him angry, jealous, and revengeful, even arming him with bow and quiver, sword and buckler. Still the belief in Satanic agency has so universally prevailed in all ages, there is so much that favors it in the Bible, and it is so impossible to disprove it, that it is best to leave it as it is, and let it do all the good it can. There are minds that seem to require it, and delight in it, and regard its denial as almost atheistical. Little as we can understand this feeling, we will not make light of it. To us there are higher sources of strength, as well as greater reasons for alarm. We might indeed find relief, such as it is, if we could trace our evil thoughts and frequent sins to any agent or influence out of ourselves. But we cannot. We dare not. And we infer from the manner in which Charlotte Elizabeth complains of the unbelief and growing apathy of Christians on this subject, that we are not alone or peculiar in this respect. In her "Personal Recollections" she says "Of all the errors into which the world has fallen, none is more fatally mischievous than the habit of overlooking the personality, the energy, the power, the watchfulness, the deep cunning of the Devil." She ascribes this degeneracy to the Devil's own influence, and in the "Principalities and Powers " reveals all his cunning, daring, knowledge and power. Her sketch of his character and kingdom is a melancholy curiosity. She believes that he prevails on Christian people to banish his name from their daily converse, and beguiles Christian teachers into fatal silence about him in their pulpits. She believes that he sees our thoughts, that he sends his myrmidons to watch and cheat us, that he clothes them, if he chooses, with miraculous power, as in the case of Pharaoh's magicians, that he has been constantly growing wiser and more expert through the practice of six thousand years, that he reads prophecy, studies the phenomena of nature, uses the elements, leads disciplined armies, visits churches to distil poison into the ear of preacher or hearer, flies with lightning-speed to another continent to do his ceaseless work, "gloats over the

slumbering city about to be inundated with a flood of burning lava," invents and directs the infernal engine of Popery, at a later day employs the different delusions of Irvingism and now of Puseyism-all for the same end; to blind, and seize, and burn forever, the souls of the damned. "He is at once the originator, the director, and the leader, of every species of rebellion in heaven and earth." Nay, "he dared to face, to taunt, and to tempt the Lord Jehovah himself" with "enough of daring to brave, and enough of malignity to persecute, the Mighty Father, the Everlasting God, the Prince of Peace."

Had such thoughts and words as these come from any one of whom we knew nothing more, we should be led to doubt their sanity or their sincerity. In Charlotte Elizabeth, we doubt neither. And we will not give any more of her dark views, lest they prevent a just estimate of her spirit. That spirit is altogether better than her creed. She does not seem gloomy, but cheerful. We should not expect such a faith would make one amiable; but if she is not, it does not appear in her writings. Some of them take far brighter views of Providence, than those which we have seen. We desire to be just. The less we love her system, the more we honor the excellence that appears in despite of it. We shrink with horror from many of her doctrines, opposed alike to reason and revelation. Few of her books can be unreservedly recommended. Yet from most of them we have derived profit, and some possess a rare interest, with scarcely anything to regret. They are not for the young or undiscerning; but the mature, established, and candid, will not read them without some benefit. We do not wonder that they were prohibited in Italy, and all Papists who should receive them, denounced. With equal reprobation, probably, would she herself denounce the publications of some Dissenters, our own most. We exult in the liberty of caring for neither denunciation, but gleaning whatever of good we can find, whether in the despotic and cheerless dominion of the Pope, or the petty and exclusive kingdom of his inexorable and erring, but conscientious, fearless, uncompromising, and self-devoted antagonist-Charlotte Elizabeth.

E. B. H.