The withdrawal of Mr. Washburn was soon followed by the arrival of his successor, Mr. McMahon. This gentleman reached Paraguay early in last December, by the same vessel which brought away Messrs. Bliss and Masterman. Mr. McMahon may have believed the story of a conspiracy, which those unfortunate men confirmed in the presence of our naval officers; or he may have thought it best, now that their freedom had been secured, not to enter into any questions respecting the past. He remained near the Paraguayan government when the successes of the allies compelled its removal from the coast; and the story was circulated in Buenos Ayres that Lopez had by will appointed the American Minister guardian of his illegitimate children. Among the entertainments of the carnival in that city was a tableau in which derisive allusion was made to this rumor. The interference of Mr. McMahon to secure the safety of Argentine and Brazilian prisoners is the best answer to this insult.

Among the first acts of the administration of General Grant was the recall of Mr. McMahon. It attracted notice that this was issued during the few days when Mr. E. B. Washburn, brother of the former Minister to Paraguay, held the office of Secretary of State; and an unworthy motive has been by implication ascribed to that gentleman. But there were reasons enough for the withdrawal of our Minister from Paraguay, when there were no longer North American interests to defend, and when the presence of such a Minister could but give protection to a tyrant among whose recent acts had been the torture of two members of the American legation.

We have been personally assured by one who escaped from the power of Lopez that his government before the war, though despotic, was not sanguinary. We learn from the same source that in the early period of the struggle the Paraguayans were full of enthusiasm for their Marshal President, who then seemed entering on a career of conquest. As reverses came, and the rash enterprise which ambition had prompted threatened ruin, it would seem that the tiger awoke in the heart of the baffled invader. He first showed his rage in the treatment of his prisoners, and of some of his own officers, - General Robles, for instance, who was shot by his order for retreating from Corrientes.

Afterwards, as the war continued with its incalculable losses and miseries, while by the manifesto of the allies it appeared that the removal of Lopez would restore peace, we cannot wonder if among the chief men of the nation a plan was formed, probably to compel his abdication in favor of one of his brothers. The discovery of this conspiracy, if it deserves that name, excited the despot to the most violent measures; and, according to the testimony of many witnesses, numbers of people of the highest rank, including his own brother, fell victims to his revenge and fear. This supposition appears to us more probable than that the conspiracy was a mere fiction of Lopez himself, invented that he might enrich himself with the spoils of victims whom he knew to be innocent.

According to accounts just received, a provisional government for Paraguay has been established at Assumption, under the protection of the allies, and their forces are advancing successfully. Other accounts, however, represent the Paraguayans as still strong in their mountain fastnesses, and in control of a fertile country, which will afford them ample means of support through a prolonged resistance. For this brave and unfortunate people we feel pity and respect; and we deplore the continuance of the war, not only on their account, but also in the interest of the neighboring nations, of Brazil, where the designs of its benevolent Emperor for the abolition of slavery are thus greatly impeded; of Uruguay, which ought at length to find rest from those commotions which have marked its unhappy history; and of the Argentine Republic, which has wisely chosen for its guide a chief enlightened by the best influences of Europe and of the United States. But the contest must now go on, and our hope is that it may soon terminate in the overthrow of Lopez. To this result, wisely or not, three nations have pledged their honor; and with every allowance which can possibly be made for exaggeration and falsehood in the charges against the President of Paraguay, we must regard him as guilty of kindling, from ambitious motives, the war which now rages around him; and as identified with a system of terror, espionage, and torture, the more revolting because it falsely claims the name of republican.

S. G. BULFINCH.

ART. VII.-CRITICAL NOTICES.

1.-Chips from a German Workshop. By MAX MÜLLER, M. A., etc. Vol. I. Essays on the Science of Religion. Vol. II. Essays on Mythology, Traditions, and Customs. New York: Scribner & Co. 1869. 12mo. pp. xxxv., 374, and 402.

Charles

OUR notice of this important work, which was published in England not less than two years ago, comes a little late. But we were willing to await the time when the appearance of the American (authorized) reprint should have put it in the hands or within the reach of more of our readers. Everybody now knows it, at least by repute, as one of the striking books of the decade; as excelled in interest by none of Professor Müller's former publications, great as has been the acceptance which these have won. Their author has so gained the ear of the reading public, that anything which he may send out is sure of a wide circulation and the most favorable consideration. We rejoice that the present volumes come forth with this prestige, for they are worthy to be extensively studied, and cannot fail to exert a valuable influence in moulding the views of thoughtful men. They are in advance of the general opinion, but in the direction in which that opinion seems to be moving. The mode of their usefulness is twofold: as they furnish authentic information respecting the religious ideas and mythical fancies of periods and races lying outside our European Christian civilization ; and as they instigate us to view these in their right relation to one another and to Christianity. No one living, probably, is better qualified than Professor Müller for the task which he has here undertaken. His specialty, the study of the Veda, sets him in the very heart of the myths and creeds and rites of the Indo-European peoples, and hardly any one has studied them more deeply, or in a more original spirit, than he. The circle of Vedic divinities and their Greek correspondents are his most engrossing theme; but he is hardly less full upon the subject of the Zend-Avesta ; while the monotheism of the Semites, the dry utilitarian precepts of Confucius, the dizzying doctrines of Buddhism, and the simple beliefs of half-civilized American aborigines, receive also not a little of his attention. Such trustworthy and comprehensive information, so attractively presented within so brief compass, is not elsewhere to be found by the student of the general religious history of mankind. Made up, as it is, of independent essays, collected and reprinted with little change, the work has not the order and completeness of a systematic treatise; but it is more easily read than such a treatise would be;

each essay is a whole in itself, and not long enough to fatigue the attention of any one who is capable of deriving profit from the instruction it offers. There is also, it must be confessed, some repetition, which we might wish that the author had been willing, by a little additional labor in rewriting, to avoid; yet the fault is one of trivial consequence in comparison with the solid merits of the work. So large, and so much the most important, part of the two volumes deals with religions, that the work as a whole is fairly to be reckoned as religious, although only the first volume purports by its title to be such. The title, by the way, is not quite happily chosen: the preface alone is of the nature of an "essay on the science of religion"; the rest are rather essays on specific religions, as contributions to a science of religion. This science the author would fain see constructed after the model of the science of language, and founded upon a comparative study of all the religions which prevail or have prevailed upon the earth, and upon an understanding of them as the diverse products and expressions of one universal religious faculty or instinct. He pleads with much fervor and eloquence for the free and impartial submission of all religions, Christianity included, to this scientific investigation, this historical and comparative examination; urging in its favor the authority of the old Christian fathers, and the advantage certain to accrue to us in the better comprehension and estimation of our own religion, not less than of those with which it is compared. He earnestly protests, at the same time, against the prevailing judgment of heathen religions as products of human depravity, sacrilegious devil-worships, worthy of unmixed condemnation; and insists upon their claim to be regarded as earnest, though erring, attempts on the part of short-sighted humanity to solve the same great problems to which our own faith is an answer. Professor Müller fully recognizes the difficulty of persuading the great body of those who hold the Christian religion to let it become the object of a scientific scrutiny, along with the rest, as if it were of like substance with them. Their feelings are almost invincibly opposed to such treatment. This is no product of the religious instinct, but a body of absolute truth, supernaturally revealed, and obtainable in no other way. Nor are Christians alone likely to be found impracticable. The sincere advocates of every creed under heaven will insist on making a similar reservation. You may analyze and compare other religions as you will, tracing their various features to certain traits of human nature, or influences of human history and institutions; but each one's own faith is something of a different class. The Moslem has authority for all that he believes, in the infallible inspiration of his prophet; the Brahman claims that his Veda has existed from all eternity, and is itself a foundation of truth, VOL. CIX. NO. 225.

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undemonstrable and unassailable; the Buddhist vaunts the superhuman wisdom and power of the dreamy ascetic who taught him to aspire to extinction, and so with the rest. Only the Chinese, who have never arrogated to their great teacher anything but superior insight and purity of heart, will be liberal enough to join heartily with the votaries of the new science, along with those who elsewhere may have risen, or fallen, into a Chinese indifferentism. It is in vain to tell each one that, if his creed really contains the essence of divine wisdom, the most searching and impartial study and comparison will only bring its superiority more clearly to light: he will see an indignity in the very quest.

But even those who accept the impartial comparison of all religions have room to doubt the feasibility of a science of religion. Religion is so intricately intertwined with the whole of human thought and action that it hardly admits of being separated and considered apart, completely and distinctly. Its substance, — human opinions and convictions,—is of too subjective a character to be easily and safely handled; and the creeds which strive to express it, the rites and observances which it prompts, are wont to be, as our author well shows, untrustworthy witnesses to its true character. They are very unlike the words and forms and phrases of which human speech consists: these have enough of the concrete and objective about them to bear scientific treatment. A science of religion seems almost as little to be looked for as a science of human opinion, or of manners and customs.

These, it may be alleged, are merely difficulties in the way, and the progress of study and of the enlightenment of general opinion will show them not to be insuperable. But we do not see even the possibility of a science of religion upon just the basis which Müller would establish for it. If the bulk of human religions have their origin in the univer sal facts of human nature and the variety of human character and circumstances, then something like a scientific exposition of their rise and development may be possible; not otherwise. According to what may be called the naturalistic view, now accepted by many of the students of human history, the religious feeling is called forth in the first instance, and guided in its growth, by men's recognition of a power without them and infinitely superior to them, manifested in the phenomena of the world which surrounds them; by their irresistible disposition to attribute to this power an anthropomorphous form or forms, paralleling its action with that which they best understand and see to be most efficient within the sphere of their own consciousness and observation; and by the attempt to settle their own relation to it, and put themselves in communication with it, in order to the obtaining of good and the averting of evil. Man is the only creature capable of forming the fundamental conception