ART. VIII. - Bibliography.

AMERICA.

The book trade has been inactive, in this country, for several months, on account of the state of public affairs. Notwithstanding this, a few good books have been recently published.

The Presbyterian Board of Publication have issued "Essays and Discourses, Practical and Historical," by Courtlandt Van Rensselaer, D. D.; being a collection of monograms published by the lamented author during his life on earth. The most remarkable piece in the volume is the discourse occasioned by the death of Bishop Doane, in which the thorough honesty and the unaffected kindliness of Dr. Van Rensselaer are displayed in a singular and curious combination. It reminds one of a portrait by Vandyke, which shows the hand of the master not less plainly than the countenance of the sitter.

The same Board have published the "Autobiography of the Rev. William Neill, D. D., with a selection of his Sermons." By the Rev. Joseph H. Jones, D. D., with a portrait. Dr. Neill was one of the venerable patriarchs of the Presbyterian Church. Though he died recently, he was the Moderator of the General Assembly in the year 1815 - before the most of our living ministers were born.

The "Memoir of the Rev. Jacob J. Janeway, D. D.," by Thomas L. Janeway, D. D., is a suitable memorial of a faithful servant of Christ and of the Church, whose ministerial life was extended through the period of about sixty years, and who has left a broad mark upon the generations through which he lived.

Dr. Leonard Withington, of Massachusetts, has published an elaborate and learned commentary on the Song of Solomon, with a new Translation. The author maintains the position which has been held by the Church with singular constancy, through the ages, that this Song is an inspired allegory, celebrating the divine love subsisting between Christ the Bridegroom and the Church the Bride, the Lamb's wife; and setting forth the personal love-union between the Redeemer and his people.

An interesting posthumous collection of Sermons has been is

sued by R. Carter & Bros., from the pen of the Rev. William B. Weed, of Connecticut, who died before his prime.

The Rev. Dr. Charles W. Shields of Philadelphia, has printed a thin volume styled Philosophia Ultima, in which he strives to attain unto a final adjustment of all truth - scientific, metaphysical and revealed. The treatise is said, by competent judges, to be a remarkably able production. The author was, it may be remembered, the nominee to the last General Assembly by the Directors of the Princeton Seminary for the chair of Ecclesiastical History: and this volume may be taken as an ample vindication of the estimate which his brethren have formed of him.

C. F. Hudson has published, under the title of "Debt and Grace as related to the Doctrine of a Future Life," a new theory of future punishment by the annihilation of the wicked. The object of the work is in part to show how quietly and easily the whole thing may be done. The title of the book might have been, Annihilation made easy! The book itself has reached its "fourth thousand" on its way to Milton's Limbo.

Mr. Draper, of Andover, has in press a reprint of "Ellicott's Commentary on the Ephesians." He has published "Ellicott on the Galatians," and will complete the whole series, in uniform style.

He has in press new editions of Prof. Stuart on Ecclesiastes, on the Apocalypse, and on the Old Testament Canon.

GREAT BRITAIN.

E. P. H.

The sharp controversy which has arisen over the "Essays and Reviews" is due, not to the learning or the ability of the work itself- for it contains little more than a re-statement of German rationalism done into obscure, feeble and verbose English-but to the audacity and recklessness of its authors, six of whom were clergymen of the Church of England. About 20,000 copies of the book have been sold; and it is now in its ninth edition. A new society has been formed to defend the book, and Tract No. 1, defining the creed of the school, has been published by Alexander Allison. Rev. Geo. J. Weld, in a "Brief Defence of Essays and Reviews," attempts to show that similar views have been advanced by other Divines of the English Church: and another wri

ter imputes similar opinions to Bishop Thirlwald, on the strength of a work published in 1825, and attributed to the bishop.

Elaborate criticisms upon the work have appeared in the Journal of Sacred Literature, and in the Westminster, London Quarterly, British Quarterly, Edinburgh and North British Reviews, the last of which is attributed to Isaac Taylor. Among the other publications in the discussion are "Neology not True, and Truth not New," by Rev. Charles Herbert: "Essays and Reviews examined," by Rev. Dr. Buchanan: "Idealism considered," by Rev. Wm. Gresley: "Negative Theology an argument for liturgical revision," by Charles Girdlestone: "The Dangers and Safeguards of Modern Theology," by the Bishop of London: "Skepticism," by Lord Lindsay: "Letter to the Lord Bishop of St. Davids," by Dr. Rowland Williams, one of the Essayists: "Bishop Thirlwald's Letter to Dr. R. Williams:" "Two Charges to his Clergy," by Bishop Thirlwald: "The Inspiration of Holy Scripture, Constancy in Prayer, "&c., by Charles Heurtley: "Rationalism and Deistic Infidelity," by the Rev. Dr. A. McCaul: "Some Notice of Prof. Baden Powell's Essay on the Study of the Evidences of Christianity," by J. L. Wheeler: "Bible Inspiration vindicated," by J. C. Miller: "Religio Laici," by Mr. Hughes, author of Tom Brown's School Days: "Specific Evidences of Unsoundness in the Essays and Reviews," by Dr. Jelf: "Two Sermons," by the Bishop of Oxford, Dr. Wilberforce: Rev. T. Chapman's "Miracles the proper Credentials of Christianity." A counter work is in preparation, by Dr. Thomson of Oxford, Mr. Ellicott, Mr. Mansel and Mr. Rawlinson; and another work of similar character from Oxford, by Drs. Wordsworth, Rose, Goulburn, Heurtley, and Jones, with a preface by Bishop Wilberforce; and yet a third, by seven clergymen in seven volumes, is announced in London. An address condemning the work has been presented to the Archbishop of Canterbury, signed by 8,500 clergymen of the Church. Where are the other 10,000?

The Convocation is an ecclesiastical parliament, or an assembly in two houses of the Bishops and the inferior clergy. At the convocation of March 14, an overture, technically called a " gravamen," was presented by twenty members of the Lower House to the Upper, asking the Bishops to appoint a committee from

the Lower House to report on the subject to the Bishops. The proposal was debated, the Bishop of London, Dr. Tait, opposing; but it was adopted by a vote of eight to four. Archdeacon Davison, as chairman of the committee, soon after reported. But the powers of the Convocation over questions of heresy are indeterminate, and it is doubtful whether any judgment will pass or any decisive result whatever will issue from the proceeding.

The controversy has reached this country. The book has been reprinted in Boston, and has been noticed at large in the Critical and Theological Reviews. Some of the German periodicals have taken up the subject and have spoken in disparaging terms of the learning and ability exhibited in the book. The effect of the discussion in England will be to enlighten the clergy in Biblical science-a branch of learning too much neglected by them.

The important work of Count de Montalembert entitled "The Monks of the West, from St. Benedict to St. Bernard," containing a history of Monasticism from the Romish point of view, has been published in an English translation. 2 vols. 8vo. Price in New York, $6.00.

John Paget, the well known critic of Lord Macaulay, appears in The New "Examen," or an Inquiry into the Evidence relating to certain passages in Lord Macaulay's History concerning, 1. The Duke of Marlborough: 2. The Massacre of Glencoe: 3. The Highlands of Scotland: 4. Viscount Dundee (Claverhouse): 5. William Penn. Price in New York, $1.75.

An "Exposition of the First Epistle of John," by Rev. W. J. Hancock.

"The Inspiration of the Bible," by Dr. Wordsworth.

"History of the Ojibway Indians," with especial reference to their conversion to Christianity, by Rev. Peter Jones, (“Kahkenaquonaby,") Indian missionary, with a memoir of the author, is just published in London.

"A Correspondence between the Bishop of Exeter and Lord Macaulay" has been published, in which the bishop has clearly demonstrated that the historian has done injustice to the memory of Cranmer. Such has always been the conviction of multitudes of the best informed historical students, and that conviction appears now to be well established.

Volume VIII of the works of the late John Angell James. The second volume of Dr. Vaughan's "Revolutions in English History" has appeared, discussing the Reformation from Henry VIII. to Elizabeth.

Mr. Buckle's curious work on the "History of Civilization in England" has advanced as far as the second volume. It is written in the interest of one of the modern schools of skepticism in England in which materialism is the controlling element, with such vitality as can be obtained from a cordial hatred for evangelical religion in author and reader. His pages are full of brilliant paradoxes, and of glittering and unsound generalizations. He will be admired by a certain class of very young men, but his day will be brief.

The scholarship of England has sustained a severe loss in the death of Dr. John William Donaldson of Cambridge. He died Feb. 10, aged 49, exhausted by study. He published two invaluable contributions towards the knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages, styled the "New Cratylus" and the "Varronianus," besides other important works. The Cambridge scholars were looking to him as the editor of a new Greek Lexicon, to compete with Liddell and Scott's published at Oxford.

The Rev. William R. Churton publishes a volume on "the influence of the Septuagint version of the Old Testament on the progress of Christianity.

Charles Knight has issued Volume VII of his popular History of England, coming down to 1814.

Philosophy of the Infinite: a treatise on Man's knowledge of the Infinite. Being an answer to Sir William Hamilton and Dr. Mansel." By H. Calderwood.

Bishop McIlvaine's "Inner Temple" is republished, with an introductory essay by the Bishop of Carlisle.

"The Divine Covenants, their nature and design: or the Covenants considered as successive stages in the Development of the divine purposes of Mercy," by John Kelly. The title of the book indicates one of the primal principles in the doctrine of the Covenants, and if the idea is well worked out by the author he has made an advance on any previous treatise.

Dr. Candlish appears with a second edition of his work on the