FIRST LOVE IS BEST. A Sentimental Sketch by Gail Hamilton. Boston: Estes & Lauriat.

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? The Testimony of the English Bible. Same author and publishers.

The one woman among our American humorists, has found leisure among her hours of castigation devoted to Secretary Schurz and the reform editors, to try her hand at fiction and theology. In neither department is she altogether a novice, for many of her sketches trench upon both, but this is her first formal venture in either. Her novel is not remarkable for any brilliancy in the construction of the plot or the delineation of character. A little lady finds one lover altogether worthless of her, after being taken in by his idealism and his surface. She loses her father, who dies a bankrupt, and then she marries her common-place banker neighbor, whose first proposal she had rejected. She does not love him, or thinks she does not, but he brings her round, and the book ends very happily and pleasantly. The chief demand for psychological skill is, of course, in the last chapters. The earlier scenes are pretty plain sailing, and the contrasts between the simplehearted and earnest girl and her polished and worldly lover are finely depicted. And in the more difficult part, there is at least a fair approach to success. A situation which would have taxed Charlotte Bronté's powers, is handled so as to give the reader no jar by sudden transitions or inconsistencies. We feel that Miss Howe might have looked in and seen all this, and no more than this, and yet we feel there would have been more for a greater analyst of character to tell us.

The best things in the book are the bright keen sayings, when Miss Howe speaks through her characters. Mr. Glynn, the hero, is loose in his theology; he has too good an opinion of mankind to believe in the orthodox doctrine of the Fall. He thinks his townsmen "a pretty clever set of fellows. They generally are honest and civil, and they bear each other's burdens most of the time, though they may occasionally set them down and swear at them." He does not call himself a Unitarian, though he thinks he might, because the name means so little. "Any one who has no creed at all, but merely believes he ought to be decent, is allowed to call himself a Unitarian."

In her little theological venture Miss Howe approaches this question of the great divide in New England, between Unitarian and Orthodox, especially as it is intensified by the science-ward or naturalistic drift of liberal thinking. She takes it up in an irenic spirit, but she gets into dangerous ground. She speaks of Christ as an "emanation" from God, and asserts his divinity in much the same Sabellian sense as Dr. Bushnell and Rev. John Miller do. She rejects the orthodox view of many points-inspiration for instance-and labors to show, as Locke did, the reasonableness of Christianity from a common-sense standpoint-that of the common

sense of the second half of the nineteenth century. We hardly think the work worth doing. All such apologies, as Lessing long ago pointed out, must present far more weak points for attack, than does thorough-going and hard-headed orthodoxy.

IDOLS AND IDEALS, with an Essay on Christianity. By Moncure D.
Conway, M. A. Pp. 137. New York: Henry Holt & Co.
THE CRADLE OF THE CHRIST. A Study on Primitive Christianity.
By Octavius B. Frothingham. Pp. x. 233. New York: G. P.
Putnam's Sons.

PERSONAL IMMORTALITY and Other Papers. By Josie Oppenheim.
Pp. 98. New York: Charles P. Somerby.

THE ANONYMOUS HYPOTHESIS OF CREATION. A Brief Review of the so-called Mosaic Account. By James J. Furniss. Pp. 55. Same publisher.

QUESTIONS AWAKENED BY THE BIBLE. By the Rev. John Miller, [of Princeton, N. J.] Pp. 152. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co.

Not a very orthodox batch of theology this. Every one of these writers is, from his own point of view, attacking the convictions upon which Christian society rests, with the assurance that when the foundations have been eliminated, the edifice will be only the more stable.

Mr. Conway is the ablest of the five. If he would only take to heart John Stuart Mill's maxim, "You have not refuted a man until you have refuted the best statement of his case," he would write somewhat differently. He broadly says, for instance, of Christianity, that its fruits "though not altogether evil, were preponderantly evil.” "The chief root of its evil was that it taught mankind that their supreme duty is to believe certain propositions; and the very worst sin man or woman can commit is to disbelieve those propositions." Now if Christianity means anything, it means the sum of truths and of influences connected with the teaching of the life of Christ, and historically (but ex confesso imperfectly) transmitted through the channel of the Christian church. Now, the fact is, that Christ taught the very contrary of this, and that the greatest and most Christ-like doctors of the church taught its direct contrary. Mr. Conway prefers to learn what Christianity is from Mr. Moody. It certainly simplifies his work.

Mr. Frothingham's object is to give American readers, who care to have it, a notion of the results reached by the negative school of New Testament criticism, and to show what caput mortuum of fact survives their destructive analysis, and then to show the religious uses to which this slight remnant can be put. We think his book deficient in exactness of thought, and also at times in exactness of learning. For instance, he makes Paul borrow from the Cabalah the notion of Adam Kadmon, of which we have no trace in Jewish literature earlier than the Middle Ages.

Mrs. Oppenheim is a professed materialist, but a believer in virtue and goodness. She wants no theological basis for ethics, and thinks the world would be all the more virtuous for giving it up. How the conception of right and wrong can be valid for a world in which there is no such thing as freedom, she does not say. Who would call an action "right" or "wrong," or feel for it any approval or disapprobation if he knew that it was determined by laws and forces as irresistible as those which move and direct the planets ? Mrs. Oppenheim's own womanly virtues are, on her hypothesis, no more meritorious than is the color of her eyes, and have no stronger claim on our respectful regard.

Mr. Furniss labors to show that the results of modern science cannot be harmonized with the two first chapters of Genesis. He is a literalist of the first water. No modern historian, no Darwin even, could stand the tests of a critical method, which finds a contradiction whenever things are mentioned in a different order, or a falsity where the order of mention is not that of occurrence.

Mr. Miller reminds us of Macaulay's character of "poor Whiston, who could believe anything except the Trinity." He holds to nearly all the orthodox creed, including the absolute deity of Christ, but rejects the Trinity, declaring that Father, Son and Spirit are but three modes of the divine manifestation, and that there might be a thousand such. He also rejects the natural immortality of the soul, and the impeccability of Christ's human nature. For these opinions he has been deposed.

MESMERISM, SPIRITUALISM, ETC.

Historically and Scientifically Considered, being two Lectures delivered at the London Institution (with Preface and Appendix), by William B. Carpenter, C. B., etc. Pp. xiv. 158. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

Unquestionably the most important book against Spiritualism that has appeared since those of Braid and De Gasparin. Dr. Carpenter's very high reputation as a physiologist, a keen scientific observer, and the fact that he is not prejudiced by any disbeliefs in the reality of spirit, must all command attention to his emphatic assertion, that after paying a very large amount of attention to the subject of spiritual manifestations, he is convinced that they have no causes except those with which we live in daily familiarity, and that a very large amount of them are pure imposture. He regards spiritualism as one of the Epidemic Delusions, which have occurred in all recorded ages, and first discusses its modern congeners Mesmerism, Odylism, Electro-biology and the Divining Rod, giving the evidence against the supernatural claims made for each and all of these. In the second lecture he pushes the matter closer home, giving his reasons for rejecting pretensions of modern Clairvoyance, Table Turning and all the superstitions of Spiritualism, dwelling especially on the methods of deception, and the processes of selfdeception, involved in these.

In the main we fully agree with Dr. Carpenter's view, but we think he very needlessly minimizes the unusual, the extraordinary element in the phenomena. He is so determined to exclude the supernatural, that he reduces everything to the common-place. And just here, we are convinced, is the weakness of his work, as intended to bring conviction home to believers or half-believers in the spiritualistic theory of these phenomena. They see things which they cannot explain on these every-day principles of Dr. Carpenter. And they very easily but quite wrongly infer that the attempt to account for these on purely natural ground has broken down.

The point of our dissent is best expressed by the question: Are our every-day notions as to the limits of the human mind's activity in knowing what goes on in other minds, and of the human will's activity in moving substances which are neither parts of the body nor in contact with it, ascertained to be scientifically correct by our observation of the cases which seem exceptional? Dr. Carpenter does not absolutely answer this question in the affirmative, but he comes as near to that answer as he can get, and thus, we think, deprives himself of the best weapon against the superstitions. which he is combating.

One point of interest presented by Dr. Carpenter's work is the very large collection of facts, many of which are not accessible elsewhere. Especially is this true of Dr. Braid's investigations published in 1852, but by no means accessible to readers of our days. One very curious fact which he recalls, is the failure of all the mediums and clairvoyants to claim the bank-note, which Sir James Y. Simpson had deposited in an Edinburgh bank, to be given to the man or woman who would tell its number. We confess we should have thought them able to do this, at least after meeting Dr. Simpson, and recalling the matter to his attention. And we are curious to know whether he evaded all intercourse with these people after making his offer. In that case, they certainly could not tell the number.

We think that Dr. Carpenter's book is likely to do a deal of good, and we hope that its American publishers will succeed in securing it a very wide circulation.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

Boston: Monday Lectures. Biology, with preludes on current events. By Joseph Cook. With three colored plates after Beale and Frey. 12mo. Pp. viii., 325. Cloth, $1.50. Boston: Jas. R. Osgood & Co. [Porter & Coates. Economics, or the Science of Wealth. By Julian M. Sturtevant, D. D., LL.D., Professor of Political Economy in Illinois College and Ex-President of the same. 12mo. Pp. xvii., 343. Cloth, $1.75. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. [Claxton Remsen & Haffelfinger.

History of French Literature. By Henri Van Laun. Vol. III. From the end of the reign of Louis XIV. till the end of the reign of Louis Philippe. 8vo. Pp. xvi., 467. Cloth, $2.50. G. P. Putnam's Sons. [Claxton. Remsen & Haffelfinger.

Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, showing the operations, expenditures, and condition of the Institution for the year 1876. 8vo. Pp. 488. Cloth. Washington: Government Printing Office.

Bulletin de L'Academie Royale des Sciences des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, 1877, No. 8. Brussels: F. Hayez, Printer of the Royal Academy. The Tower of Percemont. By George Sand. IV. 16mo. Pp. 227. & Coates.

Physiology of Mind.

Collection of Foreign Authors, No. Paper, 50 cts. New York: D. Appleton & Co. [Porter

Being the First Part of a third edition, revised, enlarged and in great part re-written, of " The Physiology and Pathology of Mind." By Henry Maudsley, M. D. 12mo. Pp. xix., 547. Cloth, $2.00. New York: D. Appleton &

Co. [Porter & Coates.

Diana. By Susan Warner. 12mo. Pp. vi., 460. Cloth, $1.75. P. Putnam's Sons. [J. B. Lippincott & Co.

New York: G.

History of the Ottoman Turks, from the beginning of their Empire to the present time. By Sir Edward S. Creasy, M. A. (Late Chief Justice of Ceylon.) 12mo. Pp. xxi., 558. Cloth, $2.00. New York: Henry Holt & Co. [Porter & Coates.

Pauline. By L. B. Walford. Leisure Hour Series. 16mo. Pp. iv., 331. Cloth, $1.00. New York: Henry Holt & Co. [Porter & Coates.

Through Rome On. A memoir of a Christian and Extra-Christian Experience. By Nathaniel Ramsay Waters. 12mo. Pp. 352. Cloth, $1.75. New York: Chas. P. Somerby. [J. B. Lippincott & Co.

The Principles of Science. A treatise on logic and scientific method. By W. Stanley Jevons, LL.D. (Edinb.), M. A. (Lond.), F. R. S., Fellow of and Professor of Political Economy in University College, London. Second edition, revised. London and New York: Macmillan & Co. [Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger.

The Story of Avis. By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. 12mo. Pp. 457. Cloth, $1.50. Boston: Jas. R. Osgood & Co. [Porter & Coates.

Dolly, a Love Story. By Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of “That Lass o' Lowries." International Series No. 21. 12mo. Pp. 319. Muslin, $1.25. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates.

Forbidden Fruit.

From the German of T. W. Hacklander. By Rosalie Kaufman. The Cobweb Series. 16mo. Pp. 262. Cloth, $1.50. Boston: Estes & Lauriat. [J. B. Lippincott & Co.

Eleventh Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Illinois, for the two years ending Sept. 30th, 1876. 8vo. Pp. 512. Cloth. Springfield: D. W. Lusk, State Printer and Binder.

The International Conference on Education held at Philadelphia, July 17 and 18, in connection with the International Exhibition of 1876. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education. 8vo. Pp. 92. Washington: Government Printing Office. Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture of the Operations of the Department for

the year 1876. 8vo. Pp. 447. Cloth. Illustrated. Washington: Government

Printing Office.

The United States as a Nation. Lectures on the Centennial of American Independence, given at Berlin, Dresden, Florence, Paris, and London. By Joseph P. Thompson, D. D., LL.D. Large 12mo. Pp. xxvii., 323. Cloth, $2.50. Boston: Jas. R. Osgood & Co. [Porter & Coates.