minds us of the profound philosophical thinkers, or the great scholars, who have been such benefactors to mankind; but sometimes we seem to be listening to the glowing descriptions of Everett, the higher strains, somewhat diluted, even of Wordsworth, and again it is as if the sneer of Hume, without that perfect finish, which makes invisible the instrument that cuts, were added to the levity of Voltaire, divested of all his wit, or as if the scorn of Gibbon, without his antique dignity, were embodied in the coarse invective of Thomas Paine.

Our pleasant and our painful task is done. We have spoken freely; but, we trust, in the spirit of love, and also in that other spirit, which should always attend it as the helm of the ship, guiding while it seems to follow, the spirit of truth. We have spoken earnestly, and sometimes without being able to conceal our surprise at statements and reasonings for which our previous slight acquaintance with Mr. Parker as a writer, and our respect for him as a scholar, had in no way prepared us. Often in the progress of our work has a more careful examination obliged us to modify or entirely to change our first favorable impressions, while in no instance has it been attended with an opposite result. We have been sadly disappointed in the work. We look upon it as wholly unworthy of its author's character and mind, and believe that he too, when the heat of the battle is over, will look upon it as a strange blending of youthful aspiration and youthful folly. We deeply regret that one possessing a mind capable of what is so high should descend so low; and especially that he could not feel it right to confine himself in this, his first important essay, to what is so beautiful and true, the positive part of his belief, reserving for a more deliberate investigation and a riper judgment, the expression of those views which strike at the foundation of what is sacred to so many hearts. As it is, we trust that he will not, according to the eastern proverb, be the slave of the word which he has spoken, nor suffer himself, even by the stings of personal reproach, to be forever exiled from the great truths which he has now left behind; but that forgetting the things which are past, he will press on with less of scorn, and more of meekness, diligence and care, to the attainment of thorough, discriminating, and comprehensive views. Then, with the fine powers of a really gifted mind, and a capacity for labor possessed by very few, he may raise a monument to himself and to the truth, which shall stand erect when this hasty work shall be forgotten.

J. H. M.

CRITICAL NOTICES.

The Works of Jonathan Edwards, D. D., late President of Union College. With a Memoir of his Life and Character. By TRYON EDWARDS. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 518 and 556. Andover. 1842.

THE two Edwardses, father and son, held a high rank among our metaphysical divines, at a time when metaphysical theology was in more repute than now. The former is known to the learned, especially abroad, chiefly by his Treatise on the Will, which entitles him to a place among the subtilest writers on that intricate and perplexing subject.

The family of Edwards, as we are informed by the brief memoir prefixed to the present volumes, is of Welsh origin. The first of the family, of whom any notice is preserved, is the Rev. Richard Edwards, who was a clergyman of the established church, in London, in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and who, according to tradition, came from Wales. After his death, his wife, who had married again, came to Connecticut, about 1640, with her son, William Edwards, then young, and settled at Hartford. William Edwards and his son Richard, were both merchants, and continued to reside at Hartford. The elder President Edwards was a grandson of the latter, his father being a clergyman, and his mother, the daughter of Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton, Mass. The second President, whose works are here collected, was born at Northampton, May 26, 1745, being descended on the mother's side from the family of Pierrepont, who early settled in Roxbury, Mass. The well known Thomas Hooker, called the "father of the Connecticut Churches," was also numbered by him among his ancestors.

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When he was six years old, 1751, his father removed from Northampton to Stockbridge, then containing twelve families of whites, and one hundred and fifty families of Indians. His daily schoolmates and playfellows," he tells us, "were Indian boys," and the Indian language was more familiar with him than his mother tongue. "All my thoughts," he says, ran in Indian." He "often dreamed in Indian." He was graduated at Princeton in 1765, and was settled in the ministry at White Haven (within the town of New Haven) in 1769. A portion of his people, however, were dissatisfied with his stern theology, and some of them, as the account says, went over to the school of Priestley. His connexion with them was after some years

dissolved, and he was settled at Colebrook, Connecticut, in 1796. In 1799 he was elected President of Union College, at Schenectady, N. Y., and died in 1801.

In the character of his mind, he very closely resembled his father, as their lives had several very striking points of coincidence. To the father, we believe, is generally conceded the palm of genius, though the son is regarded as the more skilful dialectician. The father, said Dr. Emmons, had more reason, but the son was the better reasoner.

The two volumes, the title of which is placed at the head of this notice, contain, besides the short Memoir, a collection of the works of Dr. Edwards, most of which have been before published, but some of which are now "for the first time edited from his manuscripts." Of his works the two longest by far are his Reply to Dr. Chauncy's "Salvation for All Men," and a Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity in reply to Dr. West. On these his reputation as a "Divine and Philosopher" chiefly rests. They make up, with three or four short pieces in addition, the first volume. The second volume contains twentynine Sermons, several of them being occasional sermons before printed, and a selection of several short articles contributed by the author to a theological Magazine. The volumes are well printed, and furnished with a sufficiently copious index.

To those who are fond of reading the metaphysical divines of the last century, and tracing the changes which have been, from time to time, introduced into American theology, these volumes will prove very acceptable, and they deserve a place on the shelves of our public Libraries.

The senior Edwards, as it is well known, laid the foundation of those "Improvements in Theology," as they are termed, called Hopkinsianism, formerly Edwardean, or new divinity. Among these improvements one of the most important, according to the son, relates to Liberty and Necessity. Before the time of his father, he says, "the Calvinists were nearly driven out of the field by the Arminians, Pelagians, and Socinians. Watts and Doddridge had 'bowed in the house of Rimmon.'" Edwards came to the rescue, and put an end to the unseemly triumphs of the Arminians, by introducing the distinction between natural and moral necessity and inability, a distinction, we will not say with Dr. West, without a difference, but cer tainly one which, connected with Edwards's doctrine of predestination, does not help the Calvinists so far as regards the practical objections to their system. And so, we believe, it is generally felt. It requires something more than a metaphysical subtlety, at this time of day, to save Calvinism.

Critical Essays, on a few Subjects connected with the History and present Condition of Speculative Philosophy. By FRANCIS BOWEN, A. M. Boston: H. B. Williams.

THIS excellent volume is a republication of a series of articles, that first appeared in the Christian Examiner, and the North American Review. They attracted much attention when they were published, by the calm and sustained elegance of their style, their clearness and depth of thought, and their correct moral and religious tone. They appeared, from time to time, in the midst of extravagant opinions and ancient fallacies again revived; and they contrasted forcibly with the vapid sentimentalities and vague declamation, which were taken by many people as the indications of a higher philosophy about to dawn upon the world. It is but a short time since beardless young men, and maidens just entered upon their teens, who had possibly worried through a dozen pages of German speculation, and perhaps dipped into the eloquent lectures of Cousin, fancied themselves qualified to pass sentence upon the philosophy of Locke, as superficial and sensual. The mood of mind which then prevailed in certain circles was too absurd and extravagant to last long, and too ludicrous to do much harm. We never dreamed of any other conclusion to the philosophical vertigo than a speedy return to common sense. Accordingly we hear but little now of the enthusiastic nonsense, which a twelvemonth since resounded in many a fashionable drawing-room, and round many an æsthetic tea-table. We believe even Goethe's licentious novels have ceased to be considered "religious even to piety," as the Dial once pronounced his "Elective Affinities," the most licentious and detestable work of modern literature, to be.

If the philosophical fever led to no other good result, it is entitled to be respectfully remembered for being the occasion that called forth these able papers. We are glad to see them collected and published in a permanent form. They are a valuable addition to the philosophical literature of the country and age. They are rich in thought, and a model of style; and will be read with profound interest long after the delusions of the day, the follies and affectations of æsthetic ladies and gentlemen, and the blasphemous ravings of the Chardon Street bedlamites, have sunk into merited and inevitable oblivion.

A Narrative of Voyages and Commercial Enterprises. By RICHARD J. CLEVELAND. In two volumes. Cambridge: J. Owen. 1842. pp. 249-240.

THESE volumes comprise an account of the incidents, adventures, and enterprises of a life marked by unusual vicissitudes.

Mr. Cleveland began his nautical and commercial career nearly half a century ago, and continued it about twenty-five years. During this period, he engaged in hazardous and daring voyages, encountered difficulties which would have baffled the energies of a dozen ordinary men, met and overcame dangers which might have appalled the stoutest heart. The simple narrative of these enterprises, engaged in for the honorable purpose of acquiring an independence, is now given to the public. It makes no pretensions to literary elegance, and yet has the best qualities of the narrative style, being clear, correct, and graphic; free from the fashionable exaggerations of the times, but not wanting in spirit. It is principally, if not wholly, drawn up from journals kept at the time, and has an air of freshness and originality, which nothing but the vivid impressions of personal experience could have imparted.

Besides a narrative of remarkable excellence for its perspicuity, Mr. Cleveland has interwoven many lively sketches of character, drawn with a few bold and vigorous touches. The very interesting history of the young Count de Rouissillon, a Polish nobleman, exiled for political causes from his country, with whom Mr. Cleveland and his friend Mr. Shaler accidentally became acquainted, and whom they invited to accompany them in one of the longest voyages here recorded, will at once occur to the reader's memory. The sketch of quite a different personage, the black man George, who was shipped by Mr. Cleveland in one of the early voyages, and remained a faithful and attached servant as long as he lived, is another portraiture nearly as interesting as the former.

In the course of his voyages, Mr. Cleveland was much more successful in making fortunes than in keeping them. No less than three times the much desired independence was not only within his reach, but actually in his hands, when suddenly the scene was changed, either by the treachery of the elements, or the greater treachery of the fraud and avarice of men; and the daring mariner was left to begin anew his chase, over the waves of the great deep, after the gifts of the fickle goddess. But his courage seemed never to have failed him in the midst of danger, nor his upright mind ever to have been driven from its high, disinterested, and honorable tone of feeling, by the piracy of an Admiral Cochrane, or the roguery of an Arismendi; the former of whom robbed him of his hard earnings, by the legal forms of an Admirality Court, and the latter cheated him, by a great mercantile fraud.

The straight-forward narratives and simple statements in these two volumes give us a most favorable impression of the author's character. They indicate intellectual powers of no common