For what purpose, let me inquire, par parenthèse, was male nature preserved from wasting its energies on the virtues? That would be a curious chapter of the inquiry-I leave it to some one among men who will be as honest a censor of their faults as I am

of ours.

This monstrous morality is breaking down, partly from decay natural to its corrupt materials, and partly from the strengthening light of knowledge, which is exhibiting the hideous deformity of the abuses ambushed in every part of our domestic, social, and political life. Women are ceasing to practise the hypocrisy which has been a main pillar of this one-sided morality, and men are beginning to feel that their true interest consorts with female elevation, energy, and intelligence; since to women, whether weak or wise, they must trust-on women, whether worthy or unworthy, they must depend, from the cradle to the grave, for all that distinguishes humanity from brutality.

Burke said, speaking of his wife, she has a steady and firm mind, which takes no more from the female character than the solidity of marble does from its polish and lustre;' and, it might be added, without the solidity the permanency of the polish and lustre were an impossibility.

CRITICAL NOTICES.

M. L. G.

Minor Morals for Young People. Illustrated in Tales and Travels. By John Bowring. Part II.

In this second part of Minor Morals' the author has shown good judgment in not strictly confining himself to such matter as is commonly deemed level to children's capacities. My own observation,' he says, 'leads me to think that children are more apt to learn than parents and instructors generally suppose; and that their powers of mind are much strengthened by being exercised with topics which are sometimes deemed too exalted or abstruse for their undeveloped faculties. The execution of his work fully justifies his hope of thus increasing its usefulness and interest, while there is no ground for any apprehension of its being unintelligible to those for whom it is designed.

The contents of this volume are very diversified, both in the topics and in the modes of illustration. No systematic arrangement is affected, nor was it desirable. As the work is capable of indefinite extension, omission cannot be complained of; nor is any subject introduced of which we can desire the exclusion.

To one exception, and that of no little importance, we must hold that the morality of this publication is open; the same exception that we hinted at in reference to the former part, and which we take against the 'Deontology' itself, the principles of which are the avowed guidance of the author. In our apprehension Mr. Bentham failed in his application of the doctrine of utility to the practical purposes of individual morality, by allowing far too much to the opinion of society on the one hand,

and, on the other, by almost, if not entirely, overlooking the extent to which provision is made for benevolence in the human constitution, independent of any expectation of personal advantage from the good opinion or gratitude of others. The highest benevolence, or rather that which alone deserves the name, feeds on the happiness of others as actually witnessed, or as realized by the imagination, and is well content, in the fulness of this felicity, to go without any external return or recompence. But of this true virtue there are but few and faint glimpses, either in Deontology' or in 'Minor Morals.' A lower and comparatively worldly tone is adopted. Thus, in describing the selfish man, we are told that

He will not do another man a service if he can help it, because he fancies that in doing a service without an immediate return, he is giving something away in waste. He forgets that he obtains for the service the desire to do him other services. He forgets that the gratitude of others is fertile in acts of kindness.'-p. 184.

The converse is, by implication, the author's notion of a benevolent man. It is not ours. Were a man to do a service because secure of an ultimate, though not an 'immediate return,' and were he to remember that the service purchased other services to himself, and excited a gratitude that would be fertile in acts of kindness,' we cannot perceive that he would be less selfish, though he might be more long-headed. Does he, or does he not, find his own happiness in promoting the happiness of others? that is the test, we conceive, of benevolence or selfishness. It is not that the benevolent man makes the calculation of personal advantages more correctly, but that in consequence of his different mental and moral state there is another and most important element to enter into the calculation. Dr. Bowring's benevolent man thinks that 'Benevolence is the best selfish calculation, that he realizes more by it than he could do by any other habit. He finds that he gets great interest upon all the outlay of his friendly and generous feelings.'—p. 186.

This is the moral which Mr. Howard teaches his daughter.

"Do you understand my meaning, my gentle Edith?"-"Indeed, papa, I think I do. You mean that we do not get anything by being illnatured; but that we get something by being kind and good."-p. 193.

And again, when the children show a moral instinct which is much above their father's philosophy, it is thus repressed:

"But, papa," said George," you said that kindness brought back kindness in return; may not kindness sometimes fail in doing so?"

(Well asked, little boy; and for 'sometimes' you might have said 'often.' You might have asked your papa how Bentham himself fared; or, indeed, most of the world's best friends and benefactors.)

"Surely," replied Mr. Howard, “but the habit of kindness will never fail; and the habit you know is the result of acts."'

The boy who asked the question might have demurred to this reply. "Yes," said Edith, "but may we not love persons and things that cannot love us-persons that are dead, and things that cannot feel?"

"Undoubtedly you may," answered her father, "but that very disposi tion to love wins the love of others."--p. 196, 197.

There is more to the same purpose in the chapter headed 'Prudence.' Indeed the influence of this view of benevolence could not but spread itself to a considerable extent, and is the great deduction from the worth of the work.

We have several minor' objections to passages in this book, on account either of their affinity with the primary one just stated, or of a loose and inaccurate mode of expression which is scarcely to be tolerated in the teaching of juvenile ethics. For instance:

If others form too low an estimate of their calamities, do not persuade them they are worse than they think them to be.'-p. 13.

That is, do not open their eyes to the truth; a direction, the benevolence of which we take to be very often questionable.

The following is a rare specimen of indistinctness, both of thought and expression:

The desire of gain, in itself a laudable and even virtuous feeling, when controlled by prudence and kindness, is thus by commerce made subservient to the happiness of man.'

If this was penned while half asleep, the author must have afterwards got fairly into a doze, and dreamed of the wisdom of Martha Martin :

As she grew older, she found that we may habitually, if we please, dwell upon pleasant thoughts; and this experience made Martha one of the wisest of women.-p. 223.

There is no doubt of it. And, amongst men, we question whether Solomon himself could have matched her. The secret is worth an empire.

་

The anecdotes and little stories in this volume are beautifully told, and several of them cannot fail to reach the hearts of adult readers, while they fill young eyes with tears. We must particularly mention those of the African Princess,' the Russian Mushroom Girl,' and the Breton Farmer.' The chapters on Swallows,' Flowers,' and Songs of the People,' are distinguished both by interesting facts and by their poetical spirit and adornment. In these portions of the volume our sympathy with the author is entire. And although we know that wherein we differ from him he is the follower of Bentham, yet we also know that wherein we agree with him and admire him he is the follower of the dictates of his own nature, which, in this publication, brought out amid the bustle of legislative duties most honourably fulfilled, and literary and other avocations most energetically pursued, affords fresh evidence of the versatility of its powers and of its poetical and philanthropic tendencies.

Hydraulia; an Historical and Descriptive Account of the WaterWorks of London, and the Contrivances for supplying other great Cities in different Ages and Countries. By William Matthews. 8vo. Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.

MR. MATTHEWS has traced, with laborious research and indefatigable zeal, the means resorted to in all ages, from Jacob's Well to the completion of the New River water-works by that great benefactor to posterity, Sir Hugh Myddleton. A portrait of this excellent man is prefixed, and the work contains several maps and a diversity of illustrations, exhibiting the progress of various other plans, as well as those for supplying London, from the time of William the Conqueror to the present day. In a subsequent chapter is described by what means Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Greenock, &c. are supplied with this important element of subsistence and protection. Having illustrated what has been done in his own country, he proceeds to show the great

importance that the nations of antiquity placed on an ample supply of water, not only for common wants, but also for the luxurious enjoyment of baths, as in Egypt, China, Greece, Rome, &c. &c. Indeed, the re sidents of the latter, with a grandeur of thought and splendour of execu tion, made their baths and aqueducts national monuments of unparalleled magnitude. Attached to these magnificent buildings the author justly observes:

'Great, however, was the propensity to indulge in gorgeous display and voluptuous extravagance. In many instances the wealthy Romans devoted their superb and highly embellished galleries to different useful and laudable purposes; some of their saloons being the receptacles of libraries as well as the finest works of sculptors and other artists. Persons who were eminent for mental endowments or moral excellence usually resorted to and assembled in them, to participate in the rational delights of social intercourse and the improvement resulting from literary conversation. In such places Cicero, Virgil, and Horace luxuriated among intellectual entertainments; for here philosophers disputed, orators declaimed, and votaries of the Muses recited their effusions to persons of both sexes and different ages, who indiscriminately mingled together in friendly communion. In these assemblages sages also imparted the fruits of their experience, and thence the aspiring youth of Rome imbibed lessons of wisdom and virtue, animating them to perform magnanimous deeds for the glory of their country.'-p. 184.

The author reproaches this country for its very limited use of public baths, apparently so necessary to the health of the population :

Universal as may be the use of baths in the countries inhabited by the followers of Mahomet, and extensive as may be the practice in some others, to how limited an extent has this healthful and cleanly practice prevailed in Great Britain, so distinguished for its refinement and improvement in the useful arts!'

Coinciding with the feeling expressed in the above quotation, and to induce our countrymen to adopt means for a cheap and more general use of baths, a variety are described in this work, very simple in their construction, so as to bring them within the means of the humblest mechanic, whose health forms a portion of the wealth of his country.

The author very justly boasts of the superior means which, at this era, we possess for the supply of large populations with water, and thus illustrates his position:

The Roman aqueducts, the machinery of Egypt, the souterazi of Constantinople, and some other contrivances of former times, strongly excite our curiosity and claim our admiration; but how obviously inferior are they in many respects to the ingenious inventions of later periods for similar purposes; chemistry having disclosed by what means the potent agency of steam may be employed and regulated for almost indefinitely augmenting mechanical force, the skilful application of this great elastic power has facilitated the execution of plans for affording an exuberant supply of water to any city, whatever may be its extent, the loftiness of its buildings, or the number of its population.-p. 312.

It may be suggested to the author, whether, in a second edition, he might not procure analyses of the water with which London and the other great towns are supplied. Such an appendage would probably be useful to medical practitioners, by enabling them to point out the means of correcting any injurious quality in the water supplied to the public. Besides, it may tend to set the public right with regard to many prejudices previously imbibed on this subject.

There are some redundancies of language in this work, which we have no doubt his good sense will correct in a future edition; in general, however, the style is simple, perspicuous, and energetic. But merit of a superior quality pervades every page of it, and that is a most earnest desire to convey to the reader valuable information on a subject which is interesting to every class and station in society.

The Natural History of Man. Darton.

.

N.

THE materials of this compendium are chiefly and avowedly derived from the writings of Blumenbach, Pritchard, and Lawrence, the author inti mating his dissent from the speculations of the last two writers, and contending that climate is the ultimate cause of the present varieties of the human race, and consequently that all men may have descended from one original stock.' He appears to have exercised much diligence in the collection and skill in the arrangement of the facts, and has produced a valuable elementary work on a subject the study of which ought to be much more general.

Exercises for the Improvement of the Senses; for Young Children. By the Author of Arithmetic for Young Children.'

THAT education includes the training of the body as well as the mind, and guiding to the knowledge of things not less than to that of words, are the principles of which this useful and admirable little work is founded. It is not designed for the pupil, but for the teacher or parent, and every teacher or parent, who has a right feeling of his important task, will be very thankful for its aid. The Introduction' and Directions for the Teacher' contain hints which those concerned in the care of young children will do well to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.' The work is brought out, as was the former publication by the same author, (mentioned in the title,) under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,' and we rejoice to see its resources and influence thus employed. They cannot be turned to better account.

་

The anecdotes often recounted of practised acuteness in the American Indians; the power acquired by those (the deaf, dumb, or blind) whom nature has deprived of one faculty in the use of others which remain to them; the many enjoyments which in travelling, &c., are lost for want of greater readiness of observation, quickness of movement, or other corporeal or mental faculties which might, at an early age, have been cultivated, and that by most pleasurable processes, into a higher degree of power; all make us regard such a work as this as a valuable contribution to the future well-being of human nature.

Le Nouveau Testament. Glasgow: Reid and Co.

A VERY petite and very beautiful edition of the French New Testament.

CORRESPONDENCE.

We thank Vine' for his information concerning Mutual Instruction Societies,' and shall be glad to promote the formation and success of such institutions. H. G. C. and E. I, are declined, with thanks.