thus showing the independence of species and their tendency to conform with the original character-the absolute origination of living beings from inorganic matter can never be proved to have taken place. The ovum must have existed. All experiments conducted with accuracy show it.* Were we endowed with sufficient keenness of vision, we should see myriads of myriads of germs of microscopic plants, and ova of animalculæ, floating in every part of the atmosphere. The atmosphere is burdened with them. On every object they settle, with every breath they are inhaled; they are in the sap of plants, the blood of animals; they live, thrive, and die in the tartar of the teeth. Wherever they find a soil or habitation fitted for their support, there are they found in rapid growth; but whenever suitable precautions have been taken to prevent their introduction, living objects have never been found.

Admitting, then, the existence of the germ, the process of formation and growth of the little vegetable is discernible and easily traced. All the solid part comes from the gascous matter in the water, primarily flowing from the atmosphere.

The author has attempted to show, and we think, if not successfully, at least with great plausibility, that the circulation of sap in plants, and of blood in animals, is the result of a simple law of capillary attraction, thus expressed :

"If two liquids communicate with one another in a capillary tube, or in a porous or parenchymatous structure, and have for that tube or structure different chemical affinities, movement will ensue; that liquid which has the most energetic affinity will move with the greatest velocity, and may even drive the other fluid entirely before it; that this is due to common capillary attraction, which, in its turn, is due to electric excitement."-Paragraph 88.

The heart, then, will no longer be considered a pump, exerting a mechanical power almost incredible and perfectly unaccountable, but merely subsidiary to the circulation, in producing which every fibre of both the veins and arteries participates.

The greater part of this Treatise is an examination of the nature and effects of light. This, for want of room, we must pass over. Suffice it to say, however, that the author concludes yellow light to be the great agent in producing chemical phenomena. His concluding remarks show so strikingly the wonders of nature constantly taking place around us unobserved, that we cannot forbear to quote.

* See experiments of Prof. Owen, in Edinburgh New Phil. Journal, quoted in Watson's Practice of Physic, p. 738.

"An exogeneous forest tree, from its magnitude, rising, perhaps, a hundred feet above the ground, and spreading its branches over hundreds of square yards, may impress us with a sense of sublimity; a section of its stem might assure us that it had lived for a thousand years, and its total weight could only be expressed by tons. An object like this may, indeed, call forth our admiration; but that admiration is expanded into astonishment when we come to consider minutely the circumstances that have been involved in producing the result. If we conceive a single second of time-the beat of a pendulum-divided off into a million of equal parts, and each one of these inconceivably brief periods divided again into a million of other equal parts, a wave of yellow light during one of these last small intervals has vibrated five hundred and thirty-five times. Who, then, can conceive, when in the billionth of a second such enormous numbers of movements are accomplished, how many have been spent in erecting an aged forest oak! Who, also, can conceive the total amount of force employed from century to century in arranging the vegetation of the surface of the globe!

"The solar system is an orb of movement and light, full of vibrations of every tint visible and invisible, and which here and there envelops and enshrouds revolving points of organization and life."-Paragraph 403,

Blind, indeed, must be the moral sense of that man who can examine these wonderful phenomena of nature, and not trace the workmanship of an infinitely wise and benevolent Being. The field is but yet partially explored, and every new phenomenon that is observed, every new law that is detected, adds to the evidence of design and benevolence already demonstrative. It is for this reason that we look upon such works as this Treatise, not only as creditable to the scientific character of our country, but as having a strong tendency to bring about an era when all shall recognize the constant superintendence of God, and strive to do his will.

H.

ART. VIII.-CRITICAL NOTICES.

1. Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature. By JOHN KITTO, Editor of the "Pictorial Bible," &c., assisted by various able Scholars and Divines. Copiously illustrated with Maps and Engravings. 2 vols. 8vo. NewYork: Mark H. Newman. 1845.

WE are truly delighted to see a good American edition of this valuable and standard work. Not long since we imported a copy from England at a heavy expense, but even that we were not able long to retain. A literary friend laid his eye and hand upon it, insisting that it was more convenient for us than for him to import another. But happily we are now relieved of the task, by finding upon our table a copy as well printed and better bound than that we had before procured.

This work was not compiled in the method hitherto usual with works of similar character, namely, on the basis of Calmet and the old learning of his day, with a few shreds of modern discovery interwoven. All the more important articles were written expressly for their present use, not by one individual, but by an arrangement between not less than forty different scholars of Europe and America, all of whom stand high in their several departments.

It will be understood that this is not a theological work in name or in fact. Confining itself to Biblical literature, it claims to explore thoroughly the great fields of BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY and BIBLICAL INTRODUCTION. The following is the analysis given by the editor to the above topics. The object of Biblical archæology is to treat of,

"1. The nature of the country in which those books have originated: to this branch of inquiry belong physical geography and natural history. By the latter we understand not only (a common mistake) a systematic survey of the natural productions, but also and chiefly an enumeration of the peculiar features of their origin, growth, continuance, cultivation, use, &c. It is, for instance, quite immaterial what place the datepalms or balsam-shrubs occupy in the system-such investigations being of no importance for the understanding of the Bible, the writers of which have disregarded those points; while, on the other hand, the peculiarities of the locality where the palm-tree stands, its external appearance at the different seasons of the year, its growth, fertility, use, &c.,-in short, all that particularly strikes the sense of the beholder, have frequently exercised considerable influence on the inspired writers; and these sources of external impressions on the senses and mind of man are to be particularly considered and noticed by Biblical archæology.

"2. The inhabitants of those countries; their peculiar character, manners, customs, way of living, and their intercourse with other nations.

"3. The vicissitudes of their people,-consequently, the history of the Hebrews and Jews, down to that time when the last books of the Scriptures were written.

"4. The politico-religious institutions, the civil and geographical order and division of the land and the people; and

"5. The mental development of the Hebrews and Jews, the regulations founded on it, and the degree of progress which the arts and sciences had attained among them.

"Biblical archæology may be further divided into two classes—that of the Old Testament and that of the New Testament: the former may again be subdivided into the Hebrew and the Jewish archæology.

"As soon as the foundation for Biblical researches is laid by the help of Biblical archæology, the theologian then turns to the solution of the second main question in theology :-What is meant by the Scriptures? How and when have they arisen? In what form do they lie before us? The answer to all these questions is the object of BIBLICAL INTRODUCTION, or, more correctly, of the History of Holy Writ. It is divided into Introduction to the Old Testament and Introduction to the New Testament. It must render an account

"1. Of the origin of the individual books received into the sacred canon; not omitting to notice at the same time the various views that have been entertained on that point by critics of all ages, as well as those particular opinions which are seemingly the more correct.

"2. Of the origin of the collection of the books of Scripture as the repository of Christian knowledge, or of religion; constituting the History of the Canon.

"3. Of the spread of the Scriptures by transcriptions, translations, and printing.

"4. Of the vicissitudes and fate of the original text; forming the History of the Text; and,

"5. Of the various motives which have led to various modes of understanding the Bible; being the History of Interpretation."

Without dwelling upon the remaining contents of the work, we will content ourselves by recommending it earnestly for every minister's and student's library; remarking only, that several of the engravings are beautifully executed on steel.

2. The Eclogues and Georgics of Virgil. With English Notes, Criti cal and Explanatory. By CHARLES ANTHON, LL. D. Harper & Brothers.

THESE exquisite poems, justly admired by many as not inferior in beauty to the Æniad, have hitherto been too little read in our classical

schools, mainly, we doubt not, from the want of suitable editions, adapted to the capacities of the student. This want is now most happily supplied by this volume, in which the distinguished author has removed all difficulties from the path of the scholar, and thus enabled him to read the poems with a hearty appreciation of their peculiar and exquisite beauty. Dr. Anthon's series of classical books is universally regarded as by far the best that has ever been published; and we have no doubt that, like others, this will soon find its way into all our schools.

3. A First Book in Latin, containing Grammar, Exercises, and Vocabularies, on the Method of Constant Imitation and Repetition. By JOHN M'CLINTOCK, A. M., Professor of Languages, and GEORGE R. CROOKS, A. M., Adjunct Professor of Languages, in Dickinson College. Harper & Brothers.

WE are inclined to think that this book, and those which are to follow it by the same authors, will work a revolution in the modes of teaching Latin and Greek in our schools. The principles on which they are prepared were fully set forth in an article in this Journal for Jan., 1846; and we are able to say, on careful examination of the FIRST Book, that those principles are carefully adhered to and most admirably carried out for practical purposes. The advantages of Ollendorff's method are secured by exercises for imitation and repetition, which the pupil must prepare from his very first lesson; while the unscientific features of Ollendorff's book are avoided sedulously, and the learner is gradually carried on to a thorough knowledge both of etymology and syntax. As soon as forms are learned, they are employed in practice; no useless material is allowed to accumulate upon the pupil's hands; nor, on the other hand, is he ever required to "make bricks without straw,"to work exercises for which he is not prepared, as is too generally the case in our elementary books.

But while we were prepared, by reading the article referred to, to find this work an excellent manual for oral instruction in Latin, we certainly did not expect to find in it so great a stock of etymological facts -least of all, to obtain with it any real addition to the science of philology. In these respects it is far more than we could have hoped. Not only has the whole range of German philology been ransacked to contribute to its methods, but new principles have been developed by the authors, which, we predict, will obtain for them a high place among the scholars of the country. Among these we would call attention especially to the doctrine of genders of nouns of the third declensionan instance of clear and beautiful generalization rarely to be met with in the science. Another novel and meritorious feature of the book is