conclusions which have been received by divines in this country, though in some points the author differs from them. These differences, however, ought not to affect materially our estimate of the value of the work. We have in them the convictions of an honest mind, which shrinks from no labor, and fears nothing so much as a forsaking or wavering statement of the truth.

The treatise of Lange, on the Resurrection of the Body, which is appended to that of Rückert, is a brilliant speculation. The views which it opens are interesting as matters of thought, and of practical, personal interest too, though in the regions of conjecture. The notions of nature and of life from which they are derived belong to a philosophy eminently attractive, but which has as yet gained few disciples among us.

Then follows a Life of Plato from Tennemann, a careful examination and statement of the principal events of his life. This piece will be thought valuable by our scholars, not only for the information it gives respecting Plato, but as an excellent specimen of the style in which a literary biography should be written. The testimonies of ancient writers are exactly compared and sifted, and the principles of historical criticism skilfully applied. Annexed to it is what may be called a sketch of "the literature of the subject," by Prof. Edwards. The translators encourage us to expect another volume, relating solely to Plato and Aristotle, and containing a full account of their lives and philosophical systems. This attempt is an earnest that it will be well done, and we cannot doubt it will be highly acceptable to the scholars of our country.

The last article is on the Sinless Character of Jesus, by Prof. Ullmann, of Heidelberg, and translated by Prof. Park. The subject is one of matchless interest. Its relations to dogmatic theology are of fundamental importance, and the bearings of it in this relation deserve a careful examination. But to our mind the moral interest of it, and its intimate connection with the christian life give it a higher attraction.

The doctrine of human culture, considered as a science, rests on the idea of the Perfect. But our apprehension, from the imperfectness of our faculties, is necessarily feeble, and by our depravity is made dim; and, as the discipline depends on the clear brightness of it, it were a sad lot for us who are born with a natural upward striving, if we must labor forever like blinded Polyphemus, feeling after what we cannot see, turning only mangled orbs to the great light. Yet such we should be in the

darkness of our own perceptions. We can discern a ray of light, yea many and glorious rays. We can recognize one and But nature and our exanother virtue beautiful and excellent.

perience furnish only fragments, and nowhere is the power to reproduce the original image from which they were broken. History furnishes no example of a perfect man, nor yet has the mind of any formed a full conception of the grace and dignity of complete manhood. It were a kindness worthy of a God to send into our world one pattern of what man should be, to reanimate the hopes of the virtuous, with the assurance that they do not struggle in vain, and wake the slumbering elements of goodness in the hearts that are worldly. Without it our efforts were irregular and often ill-directed, for our views would have neither unity nor life. Such a blessing is vouchsafed us in the person of Jesus. When we contemplate the wonderful combination and balance of his character, his calm virtue, his spotless life, do we first begin to realize what man should be, and may be, and find ourselves drawn towards that living model, with a sweet and gentle persuasion that cannot be resisted. Then rises in our firmament a brighter star than of sages and heroes. There is virtue and healing in its light.

The influence of the perfect purity of Jesus on the development of Christianity in the soul of man has certainly been undervalued We dwell not too much, but too exclusiveamong us. ly, on the crowning grace, the love that died. Here, doubtless, is the origin and great fountain of our spiritual life, and hope; but what had been the nature of that death, without the obedience that went before? His perfect innocence magnifies the offering of Christ, not merely as a sacrifice to God, but as a free gift to man; but had even the sacrifice been made, and the redemption made sure, where had been our guidance, but for that pillar of light, the sinless purity of Jesus? We are not merely to be redeemed by his grace, we are to be of his spirit; and as by his death we are effectually born again, so by meditation on his life are we to build up our spiritual being, and become Christ-like and God-like. We know many on whom this great power seems to be lost, many too who are Christians, we may not doubt; yet their character would gain, we think, both consistency and completeness, by a sympathy with Jesus as a man, as it has strength from adoring him as God.

We do not trust ourselves to say all that we think of the value of this article. It is an ample and masterly discussion,

cautious yet ardent, of a subject which, as it sustains the best hopes, touches also the tenderest feelings of the heart. The entire title of the piece is "An Apologetic View of the Sinless Character of Jesus." Would that some mind of kindred sympathies and powers among us would complete the view, and apply this great fact to the doctrines of the Gospel, and show its power over the heart and life of man. In our day and country this discussion is of the highest moment. We need the example of Christ to correct our misinterpretation of his precepts. How many instances of modern fanaticism could have no existence in minds which had known his calm dignity and repose!

One word as to the manner in which the translations are executed. German writers are almost without exception difficult to translate. The language itself presents shades of thought, idiomatic forms of expression, and combinations which it is impossible to render exactly into good English. Its compounds are hardly translatable, except by a circumlocution which materially impairs the force of the sentence. Then the style of German writers is very diverse from what we should call good writing in English. They indulge in interminable sentences, worse than Milton's, twisted and complicated with innumerable parentheses, seeming dislocations. Many, moreover, use a philosophical language which has no adequate expression in our tongue. These and other difficulties, the translators have surmounted with great skill. The translation, while it retains the strength, liveliness and spirit of the original, is thoroughly and purely English. There are no traces of a mere doing into English, which has made translations from the German by scholars in England, heavy and unreadable. The style is easy and idiomatic, and might for the language well pass for original English composition. The notes which have been added by the translators, show great learning, and judgment, and taste, and contain discussions of great value. The same spirit of liberal scholarship which has guided in the selections, has given due proportion and pertinent criticism, and rich illustrations.

We have said that a work is sometimes as valuable for its form as for its thought. This is true not absolutely, but relatively, in respect to the reader. The form contains the writer's method; and it may be that the culture of the reader shall be more aided by a perception of his method, than by a knowledge of his conclusions. This remark is applicable in some extent

to this work. We do not mean to undervalue the truths so ably set forth in it; yet cannot but believe, that a service of hardly less worth has been rendered to our community, by the specimens which it contains of thorough and exact analysis, and of scholarlike investigation.

ARTICLE XIII.

REVIEW OF BACON'S HISTORICAL DISCOURSES.

By Rev, Noah Porter, Jr. New Milford, Conn.

Thirteen Historical Discourses on the completion of Two Hundred years from the beginning of the First Church in New Haven, with an Appendix. By Leonard Bacon, Pastor of the First Church. New Haven Durrie & Peck. New York: Gould, Newman and Saxton, 1839. pp. 400.

We are always gratified to see a vindication of the character of the Puritans, and an illustration of their history, undertaken and executed by one of their true-hearted sons. We are pleased to know that one, who is animated with an honest reverence for their principles and aims, and possessed of much of their spirit, has stepped forth as the fair but fearless assertor of their well-grounded claims to the respect and the love of the passing generation, and endeavored to establish in the minds of their descendants a deep and lasting attachment to the honor of their ancestry.

We expect and have a right to demand, that such a man will conduct his inquiries with a reverence for truth, that is higher even than his love for the Puritans, and that he will fearlessly bring to the test of truth, the soundness of their distinctive principles, the wisdom of their measures, and the excusableness of their prejudices. For the men whom he would vindicate, if they gloried in anything, gloried in their attachment to truth, and made it ever their boast that they yielded an implicit deference to her authority, as she speaks in the voice of conscience and by the Word of God. That authority they counted as far more worthy of their homage than that of kings SECOND SERIES, VOL. II. NO. III.

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and prelates, and with inward reverence to her majestic presence, they stood up before a majesty which they deemed far inferior, and their faces were not ashamed. He then, who in the spirit of the Puritans and upon their own principles would scan their history anew, and study their character, must be willing to refer both to the same tribunal and with fearlessness abide the issue of a repeated investigation. We ought not to be surprised, perhaps, if he who by early education, has been used to give half the reverence of his heart to Truth in her severe and simple dignity, and half to the throne of a monarch, begirt with its dazzling cincture of nobles in church and state, should conduct an investigation that is partial, even when he intends to be honest, and rest upon biassed conclusions when he least suspects his own fairness. Nor should we at all wonder, if he who has violently rent himself from his early attachment to the simple forms by which his father worshipped God, and which his mother taught him to love, should manifest an intemperate zeal in attacking the principles and the fame of his Puritan ancestry, and show a too forward eagerness as he pronounces the edifice to be unsound which they reared at so great a cost, and rallies around himself associates to assist in the work of its destruction. But in the professed inheritor of Puritan principles it would be treason to be otherwise than ready to stand or fall by the truth, and to cast himself upon her award, even when he is summoned to the delicate and difficult task of estimating on fair principles of judgment, the real worth of those whom he has been taught to honor.

It is not for him, however, after he has finished such an examination, to fear to declare with boldness his firmer attachment to their principles; nor is it for him to shun with a fervid spirit, to proclaim anew their private worth and public virtue. The descendant from the non-conformists of the seventeenth century, who has studied their claims to the regard of the present generation, should not be too timid to make them known. He of all other men should be the last to be led by literary associations, or the prevailing current of thinking among fashionable religionists, to present an apology when he ought to stand upon the high ground of triumphant vindication. He should be the last man to rest satisfied with palliating or excusing their peculiarities, when he ought to call up from the past, the voice of indignant rebuke against their degenerate sons. The author of these discourses has fulfilled both of these requi