After hearing a sermon from Chalmers, we should feel that we had possessed ourselves, indeed, of all the positions, all the thoughts; but we should still wish to read it once, for the pleasure of noting more calmly the richness of his combinations, the gorgeous amplitude of his illustrations, and the singular blending in the play of the faculties, of Intellect, Fancy, and Imagination. But we are reminded of one other great preacher of this age, whose keen, polished, and powerful intellect- cultivated, elegant, and classical taste compact, vigorous, and beautiful logic, fuzed together, and vivified by a fervid imagination, produced results of eloquence which we should not only have heard with pleasure, but may recur to as studies, with perpetual delight and improvement: this was Robert Hall. a man who, if happier circumstances had favored, would, we believe, have left more enduring monuments of intellectual greatness in certain departments of production, than any that the age has bequeathed to us.

6. Notes, Critical and Practical, on the Book of Genesis, designed as a general help to Biblical reading and instruction. By GEORGE BUSH, Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Literature in the New York City University. New York: 1838. In 2 vols. Vol. 1. pp. 364.

THE favorite object of Professor Bush is to produce commentaries, not unworthy the scholar, but which will be also practical and instructive enough, and cheap enough, for readers at large. His aim is high and difficult, but worthy of all praise; and to his general execution of it, we are ready to bear the testimony of decided approbation. He has, of course, a more trying task in Genesis, than in Joshua and Judges; his notes upon which we commended in our last number. Genesis is, if we may so say, full of the premises of revelation, and the character assigned these premises naturally governs and determines every system of theology. Genesis, also, is a domain in which the natural as well as moral philosopher, has largely expatiated. Professor Bush must be an adroit pilot, to guide his reader unharmed through all the perils and temptations of such a book of destiny and speculation. In the main; we are happy to say, he is unusually fortunate; escaping Scylla, without falling into Charybdis.

More real learning and genuine common sense will not be found in any condensed commentary on Genesis, in the English language and especially will no commentary of its pretensions be found, united with more freedom from system-worship, and un

doubted reverence for scripture as the actually revealed will of God - the will of God so revealed, as to be an original and divine authority, and not poor man's reflections on it, according to the most improved Socinian theory of inspiration. Such freedom and reverence are, in our view, the two very foremost requisites of an interpreter of scripture; and we give Mr. Bush no more praise than we think his due, when we say, we know no one, among our American interpreters, who possesses them more fully. If he is in danger of erring occasionally, it is, perhaps, in not speaking out with a strength, in which most orthodox theologians would cheerfully sustain him, and in an unasked and gainless complaisance to philosophers.

For example, we find him abandoning "Elohim," and "us," (Gen. i. 26,) as not bearing upon questions about the Godhead. True, these are not palpable proofs of a Trinity; yet we are quite inclined to the belief, that they are forms of phraseology which would not have been employed, if the Godhead were such an absolute unity, (or rather unicity,) as the Socinians make it; who seem to try to refine the Deity down to a very point.

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Then we find him saying, (on p. 26,) "It is a matter rather of rational inference, than of express revelation, that the material universe was created out of nothing." We had always thought that "of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things,' * and things which are seen were not made of things which do appear," amounted to something more than a rational inference." We are sorry to see our author, (as on p. 184,) again merely recommending an improvement in the punctuation of our common English Bibles. Why not let us have his own punctuation at once? for be the words of our common version never so invariable, the points, and the italics of it, have been undergoing modifications ever since 1611; and we do not understand how there can be any presumption in approaching them, with a critic's hand.

We hope Professor Bush does not mean to keep stereotyped prefaces ready for his volumes, as they severally appear. A portion of the preface to his volume on Joshua and Judges is transferred to this, and with it his former claim, "that, after every abatement, much will be found in the ensuing pages, not to be met with any where else." We trust he does not intend to make this claim a standing one; for we have formed an impression of his modesty and candor which we are anxious to prolong.

Rom. xi. 36.

+ Heb. xi. 3.

7. Carver's Travels in Wisconsin. From the third London edition. New York: 1838. Harper and Brothers. 8vo. pp. 376.

THIS work contains the record of a tour made through the region of the northwestern lakes seventy years ago. Its author, Jonathan Carver, was born in 1732, at Stillwater, then in "the province of Connecticut, but now in New York," and was descended from William Joseph Carver, of Wigan, in Lancashire, who was rewarded for his services in the British army in Ireland, with the first government of that "province." Having served as a captain in the English provincial army, which was disbanded after the treaty of Versailles, in 1763, by which the northwestern territory was surrendered from France to England, he commenced his journey through the northwest for the purpose of discovery. Impelled, at first, by a spirit of adventure, he gained, during his sojourn among the then powerful tribes of the Chippewas and Sioux, such an influence, by his prowess and address, that he was constituted a chief, and received an extensive grant of land, which has been since well known as the "Carver Grant," and the foundation of a claim now pending in that quarter. In common with the pioneers of that day, he had endured extraordinary hardships, and encountered perils in the public service; and having prepared his journal, he embarked for England in 1769, with a view to obtain reimbursement from the English government, for individual expenses which he had incurred for its benefit. In this, however, he was disappointed, and, lingering through a life of deprivation, he finally perished from actual poverty, in the city of London.

The journal of Carver contains a topographical description of that country, and an account of its natural history, and the Indian tribes, which is the result of his personal observations. It is written in a plain and quaint style, without the incredible statements which abound in the work of La Hontan, or the flowing and graceful eloquence of Charlevoix. Carver was a modest and truehearted man. Some of his facts, however, we should be inclined to discredit. These he recites on the authority of the Indians, which, by the way, is in many instances no authority at all. Among other things, he alludes to a storm of ink, which rained on the town of Detroit in 1762, a portion of which was bottled and used for writing. This was said to have been ominous of the Pontiac wara kind of shower which would seem better adapted to our own age of scribbling and printing. The work is, however, in the main, as satisfactory as could be expected, considering the circumstances under which it was prepared, and gives us an interesting account of the northwest, when under the dominion of Great Britain. The English editions were inscribed to Sir Joseph Banks, the author's friend and patron. It is well printed, and embel

NO. VII.-VOL. IV.

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lished with maps, engravings illustrative of natural history, Indian implements and costume, and a likeness of the author. We commend it to those who are interested in the subject.

8. Memoire sur la Cause et les Effets de la Fermentation Alcoolique et Aceteuse. Par MONS. TURPIN, lu a l'Academie des Sciences de Paris. Seance du Lundi, 20 Aôut, 1838.

ALTHOUGH this memoir is not exactly of the class of literary productions we have usually noticed, still as it makes known some new and highly interesting facts, it seemed to us not out of place, to introduce it to our readers.

On examining with a microscope the phenomena which take place in the fermentation of beer, it is discovered, that the production of alcohol and carbonic acid, into which the farinaceous part of the barley is transformed, in other words, the substance which constitutes the wort, is a simple consequence of an act of vegetation. This beautiful discovery was made very recently, by Mr. Cagniard Latour. Mr. Turpin, who has particularly distinguished himself by his skill in the use of the microscope, repeated the experiments of his learned compatriot, and communicated the results of his observations to the French Academy of Sciences, at their meeting, on the 20th of August last. These results are published in the weekly report of the Academy, and are full of curious facts. The following extract from them will be sufficient to show the nature of Mr. Turpin's experiments, and at the same time give an idea of the important part performed by leaven in the act of fermentation :

If a certain quantity of fermented yeast is added to the new wort of beer, which already contains a certain quantity of yeast globules, arising from the small portion of fecula which constitute the perisperm in barley, the microscopic globules with which this yeast is furnished develop themselves like a forest of young plants, springing from seed sown in a good soil, and produce moniliform vegetable shoots, composed of five or six joints, with a tendency to branch. While the vegetation continues, the fermentation continues with proportional force; when the first ceases, the second ceases also. Hence is seen why the quantity of yeast increases in consequence of fermentation; the more active the fermentation has been, the more abundant must be the product.

In the fermentation upon which brewing depends, vegetable infusoria are developed; on the other hand, in some other fermentations, they are animalcula. In both cases, the little organized be

ings, in feeding upon the substance in fermentation, separate the elementary principles of which it is formed. In the case of beer, the vegetables, which Mr. Turpin calls torula cerevisiae, transform sugar into alcohol, and carbonic acid. The escape of the latter, as has long been known, produces the effervescence.

9. Home Education. By ISAAC TAYLOR. First American, from the second London edition. New York: 1888. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 322.

IN speaking of such a book as this, upon such a subject, we are in danger of swelling our remarks to a volume. It is so full of pure thoughts, sound principles, and important suggestions upon a matter of the highest moment, we would gladly go beyond our limits and point out its merits in detail. As we cannot do this to any extent, we will do something better, and heartily recommend the work to the attention of the public; and we shall feel that we have done no small service to the community, if we are instrumental in causing it to be more extensively read and followed.

The author is no stickler for some new system of his own invention; he does not believe that he has discovered the long sought royal road to knowledge; he has studied the nature of the human mind, and watched its development in his own children, and this volume is the result of his study, and his practical observation upon intellectual culture. To this branch of education it is wholly confined, to the exclusion of religious and moral culture, not, as he observes in his introduction, that he assigns to them a subordinate place, but, for reasons which he does not give, he leaves for the present those subjects which he recognises as of" supreme importance." Although the work treats particularly of home education, the author does not come forth as its champion in opposition to public education; he frankly acknowledges the advantage of school discipline, as a general rule, for boys, and claims the no less obvious advantages of home, as the best school for girls. But while he acknowledges as above the general advantages of public education for boys, he maintains that home education, even for them, may often produce some beneficial results not to be derived from schools; and we confess, that strong as we are in the cause of public education, we are glad to see this obvious truth placed on the right ground. A consideration of the difference in the capacity and dispositions of children, and of the great purposes to be effected by education, will suggest to every one the principal arguments urged by our author in favor of his position. The reasoning may