"Controversial Notes" designates specifically many points in which the mere human view of Christ must be incomplete and erroneous.

There is one point, however, in the Preface and Controversial Notes of Ecce Deus, which militates against the view of the unity of authorship-the praise bestowed on Ecce Homo and its author. In the Preface of Ecce Deus the author says he "hopes that on the points on which he differs from the author of Ecce Homo, he has not been betrayed into a tone which is inconsistent with the respect due to the finest genius and the frankest candor." In the Controversial Notes he says, "The most cursory observation can not fail to notice the innumerable beauties of this publication, [that is, Ecce Homo.] The writer has rendered inexpressible service to the cause of free inquiry by his magnificently intellectual discussions of fundamental truth, and has given views of Jesus Christ's life and work which must be most useful in many ways." And again: "The present writer can not but thank the author of Ecce Homo for the intellectual stimulus and moral inspiration which he has derived from a repeated perusal of its instructive and stimulating pages." On the supposition that the same author has written both volumes, of course we could only say that the above passages are part of the machinery intended to continue the mystery of the authorship of both.

On the question, then, Who is the author of Ecce Deus? we reply, we are inclined to believe it has the same authorship as Ecce Homo. If not, we shall still anxiously await the Ecce Deus promised by the author of Ecce Homo, for we can not fully pronounce on Ecce Homo till we have the author's promised sequel. If this volume is from the same pen, and is intended to be a supplement to Ecce Homo, then the two books must be read together to get a correct view; then Ecce Homo was intended to give us a view of the human side of Jesus, and Ecce Deus of the divine side, and we can understand some things on this supposition which were strangely inexplicable in Ecce Homo, and can have a better opinion of the author. We could accept the present volume as the one we have been anticipating. It is just such a work as we have been expecting the author of Ecce Homo to write. It is the complement of the former. It is in the same affluent style; it has the same originality of thought and expression; the same independence of investigation and utterance strangely united with the same reticence on vital points, where the author leaves us doubtful as to what he really means. It comes from the same school-not rationalistic exactly, but broadly liberal, with the same spirit toward the "Creed-Church" and orthodoxy, the saine inuendoes toward "doctors and theologians," the same half-contempt for the Christianity of the Church as it is, and the same enthusiastic admiration of Christianity and the Church as the author conceives they ought to be.

The author of neither Ecce Homo nor Ecce Deus is capable of appreciating the full character and work of Christ. After perusing both books the reader is still in doubt as to the exact relation to the Deity which the author would assign to Jesus, and after all the profound, and admirable, and true things that are said of the mission and the work of Jesus, of his life, of his cross, and his resurrection, we still wonder what the

author would say if he spoke his whole mind ingenaously in the plain language of men. If Ecce Homo is a finality, and we are to hear no more from its author, then with all its beauties and excellencies, with its lofty appreciation of the man Jesus, and its comprehensive view of his plans and achievements, it is simply an eloquent statement of the Unitarian scheme. If Ecce Deus is by the same author, then his higher, and, indeed, we may say, his sublime views of Jesus Christ and his sayings and works, lift him far above the Socinian conceptions which he repudiates with indignation, but do not fully raise him to the position of an evangelical, orthodox, Christian writer. While the book is delightful in its freshness and stimulating by its thoughtfulness, and says a great many beautiful and true things, yet there is so much that is suspicious and questionable, that every statement must be received with caution.

Yet we welcome the work, and are glad to see this brilliant and racy writer, who evidently stands outside of the school of "doctors and theologians," giving to the world the conceptions of such a mind on the great question of the day-who and what was Jesus of Nazareth? To thoughtful and studious readers it will do no harm, but positive good. It abounds in truth, in original modes of conceiving and presenting it, and in many parts is thrillingly eloquent. Many orthodox Christian minds will gather from this work grander views than they have ever had of the life, the sayings, the work, and the mission of their Divine Master. Though they will still miss out of the volume the full and hearty recognition of the Godhead of Christ, that spiritual apprehension that brings him to the soul as a living, personal, divine Savior, and will find that the author himself seems to know but little of that spiritual life which Jesus by his Spirit awakens in our spirits, yet the intellectual apprehension of the God-man is so clear, the vindication of his life, lessons, and work is so masterly, that we can well afford to forgive the author for what he has omitted, in thankfulness for what he has done.

The author truthfully and eloquently says, "To-day the great question that is stirring men's hearts to their very depths is, Who is this Jesus Christ? His life is becoming to us a new life, as if we had never seen a word of it. There is round about us an influence so strange, so penetrating, so subtile, yet so mighty, that we are obliged to ask the great heaving world of time to be silent for a while, that we may see just what we are and where we are. That influence is the life of Jesus Christ. We can not get clear of it; we hear it in the tones of joy, we feel it stealing across the darkness of sorrow, we see it where we least expect iteven men who have traveled farthest from it seem only to have come round to it again; and while they have been undervaluing the inner worth of Jesus Christ, they have actually been living on the virtue which came out of his garment's hem. Yes, it seems we must touch him either at the hem or the heart-if we will not have him for the soul, we must have him for the body. What if men reject him altogether? Then, as of old, there is no choice for them but Barabbas, and Barabbas is a robber. We see the alternative. Pilate still puts the question, 'Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called

Christ?' The voice of the people was once for the robber; it will yet be lifted up, never more to change, for the Son of God."

To minds and hearts agitated "to their very depths" with this great question, Ecce Deus will come with an eloquent and earnest voice, leading them far on the way to the recognition of Jesus, as " the Christ, the Son of the living God, and the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world." They will find their leader to be an independent inquirer, a man of broad and liberal views, a scholar of the highest order, a writer of remarkable fluency and accuracy of expression, and a thinker in perfect sympathy with the living questions of the day.

The plan and conclusions of the work are well indicated by the following propositions: "1. That it is not merely difficult, but absolutely impossible, rightly to survey the life and work of Jesus Christ without distinctly acknowledging the unprecedented conditions

under which Jesus Christ became incarnate. 2. That those conditions can alone account for, and are essential to a true interpretation of, the entire doctrine and phenomena associated with the name of Jesus Christ. 3. That those conditions, and the whole course which they inaugurated the miraculous conception, the doctrine, the miracle, the death, and the resurrection-constitute a unity which necessitates the conclusion that Jesus Christ was God incarnate. 4. That the author of Ecce Homo, having overlooked or ignored those conditions, has worked from a wrong center, and reached several sophistical and untenable conclusions."

We have marked in the volume many points which we would criticise and question, but pass them by to indicate such chapters as-The Temptation of Christ— The Mighty Works-These Sayings of Mine-Eternal Punishments-and the Relation of the Cross to the Law, as almost unexceptionable, and master-pieces in their way.

WORKS OF CHARLES DICKENS. GLOBE EDITION. NICHOLAS NICKLEBY. Four Volumes in One. 16mo. Pp. 1,228. $1.50. New York: Hurd & Houghton. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co.

THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF NICHOLAS NICKLEBY. By Charles Dickens. Diamond Edition. Pp.

472.

Double Columns. $1.20. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co.

The number of editions of the works of Dickens issued in this country is really marvelous. T. B. Peterson, of Philadelphia, has issued twenty-two different editions, at prices ranging from fifteen to one hundred and twenty-five dollars per set. Tick nor & Fields lead off in a new impetus with their beautiful Diamond Edition. It really surprises one to find the whole of Nicholas Nickleby put in so small a compass. To be sure, the type is very small, but it is very clear and readable, and the volume is a most convenient one for the pocket or the valise in traveling. The illustrations are by S. Eytinge, jr., and of course are original and appropriate. Hurd & Houghton, who already had an elegant Household Edition, have commenced the "Riverside" and the "Globe" editions, the one elegant and costly, the other cheap and a rival to the issues of Ticknor & Fields. The volume before us surprises us that it can be sold for a dollar and a half. The type is sufficiently large and clear for easy reading, and the volume is happily illustrated with designs from Darly & Gilbert. Of course, we make no comparison of these two editions; both have their beauties and their advantages. Nor need we say any thing of Dickens. No writer of fiction has ever obtained so wide a circle of readers as Mr. Dickens, and his writings have found and will still find numerous admirers among Christian readers. There is in them such a pleasant, easy delineation of events, such quiet, genial humor, such deli cate touches of human sympathy and tenderness, that it is impossible not to be pleased with them when you read them. But should Christians read them? We

would answer, in short, not when they have any thing better to do. Mr. Dickens is very fond of slurs and caricatures of Christians, and his books abound in so much wine and brandy drinking, that their final influence on the mind of the reader we can hardly bẻlieve is wholesome.

THE HISTORY OF PENDENNIS. By William Makepeace Thackeray. With Illustrations by the Author. 12mo. Pp. 764. $1.25. New York: Harper & Bros. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co.-The impulse for new and cheap editions seems to extend itself to the works of Thackeray, and we look with astonishment at this large and really-elegant book, containing two volumes in one, and more than seven hundred pages in the volume, and see it offered for one dollar and a quarter. There have been much fewer editions of Thackeray's works in this country than of those of Dickens, and indeed

scarcely any complete edition; yet there are points in which we esteem Thackeray a more unique writer than Dickens, and he was certainly more admirable as a man. His writings are satirical, but not bitter, incisive, but not cynical, dealing with the follies and weaknesses of men unsparingly, yet with a vein of sympathy and sorrow for the very weaknesses he exposes. As his great American admirer, Curtis, says of him, "he never forgot that he was one of the imperfect men miserable sinners. There was an under-current of sadwho make the world; his satire always referred to us ness in all his gayety, and a gentleness of soul robbed his satire of all bitterness, but gave it greater force, and his cotemporary fame was probably less than the world will hereafter give his name." The present volume contains an excellent steel portrait of the author.

THE POETICAL WORKS OF HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. Complete Edition. $1.50. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co.This little volume is in uniform style with the diamond

Tennyson, Dickens, etc., and contains all the poetical writings of Mr. Longfellow collected together in a complete form. The poems of Longfellow are household words. American readers are certainly being put under many obligations to Messrs. Ticknor & Fields for the handsome and cheap form in which they are issuing editions of choice standard authors.

HOMESPUN; OR, FIVE AND TWENTY YEARS AGO. By Thomas Lackland. 12mo. Pp. 346. $1.75. New York: Hurd & Houghton. Cincinnati: R. W. Carroll & Co.-A very readable book of home-life, such as it was a quarter of a century ago. In the hands of Mr. Lackland we can agree with him that "the history of a household is as well worth writing as that of a kingdom, any day. Household economy is the hint and germ of the science of political economy itself. We do not see why it is not as distinctive a mark of char. acter to be born in homespun as 'in the purple;' and it is certain that more valuable men have emerged

from the former than from the latter." The author also well says: "The man in whom the domestic feeling awaits development is yet to discover the other hemisphere of his being. Home-life and home-love are English-exclusive, and nowise cosmopolitan; they take hold of the soil itself, and, like ivy and roses, climb to the very roof-tree. Till a man is fairly domesticated, he has not got a footing; he has not yet become his own, but is still another's; he is locked out from the enjoyment of wealth of which he is the rightful owner, unaware all the while that he carries the key in his own hand." The book abounds in good things.

NOTES ON THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE HEBREWS.

By Joseph Longking. 24mo. Pp. 464. New York: Carlton & Porter. Cincinnati: Poe & Hitchcock. QUESTIONS ON THE ABOVE. By the same Author. 24mo. Pp. 134.-The fact of an author producing a series of what we might call textbooks for the Sabbath school, which rapidly run through a sale of more than a hundred thousand copies, is ample proof that he possesses peculiar qualifications for the work. Such is the case with the admirable series of "Notes on the Gospels," "Notes on the Acts," etc., by Mr. Longking. The present volume and book of questions constitute an excellent apparatus for the study of the Epistle to the Hebrews, an epistle which we have often thought ought to be thoroughly and generally studied in our Sunday schools.

THE CENTENNIAL SINGER: A Collection of Hymns and Tunes Popular during the last Hundred Years. Compiled, as Directed by the Music Committee of the General Conference and Associated Methodist Episcopal Choirs, for the Sunday School Union. 16mo. Pp. 419. $1. New York: Carlton & Porter. Cincinnati: Poe & Hitchcock.-The history of this new book is indicated by its preface, which is as follows: "The Associated Methodist Episcopal Choirs memoralized the last General Conference, desiring the appointment of a committee for the purpose of securing a collection of tunes which might become a denominational standard. Such committee was appointed; the two sections met, and determined that it was expedient to issue first a small collection of hymns and tunes for Sunday school, class, prayer, and other social meetings. Also, that the po

etry from our standard Hymn-Book chiefly should be used, and the tunes be such as had gained public favor. Prominent in this work is a purpose to induce familiarity with the poetry of our Hymn-Book, and especially that those hymns should first occupy the minds of our youth, and form the resources of memory. As the work is intended for social purposes latitude has been exercised in the selection of tunes, though nothing adopted to which even the fastidious need object, especially if regard be had to proper style of perform

ance."

SERMONS TO SCHOOL-GIRLS. By Rev. Joseph M'D. Mathews, D. D. 24mo. Pp. 143. JOSEPH MARTIN; or, "The Hand of the Diligent." 24mo. Pp. 119. New York: Carlton & Porter.-The author of the first of these little volumes is Principal of Oakland Female Seminary, and author of "Letters to School-Girls." Long experience and extended intercourse with schoolthings to them. Girls will learn much by reading this girls has taught him how to say good and valuable little book. "Joseph Martin" is the history of a poor boy who by diligence and integrity became a rich man. The boys will find something to learn in this little volume.

"

FREDERICK THE GREAT AND HIS FAMILY. By L. Muhlbach, Author of "Joseph the Second and His Court," etc. Translated from the German. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Cincinnati: R. W. Carroll & Co.We have noticed several of these very interesting books by Mrs. Muhlbach, and pronounce them vastly superior to the mere novel-reading which is so copiously furnished to the public in our day. By these delineations of life in European Courts, she renders her readers the service of reproducing for them, in lively tints, the real life of a period just past. The prominent use of the actual facts of history, and frequently putting the words which were actually spoken into the mouths of her characters, constitutes an important feature in her writings."

THE LITTLE SUNBEAM. A Choice Collection of Sabbath School Music. By W. Howard Doane. Cincinnati: John Church, jr.-This little volume, about the size and style of "Musical Leaves," contains sixty-six pages of songs and music for the Sunday school. It is not designed to be a rival or competitor to any others, 'but a friendly co-operator to all." The author says, 'Every song will be found a gem."

PAMPHLETS.-Blackwood's Magazine for April, Westminster Review for April, and North British for March, published by the Leonard Scott Publishing Company, New York; terms $4 each, or the four Reviews and the Magazine, $15. Catalogue of Alleghany CollegeProfessors, 7; students, 153. Dickinson College-Professors, 8; students, 141. Minutes of Kansas Confer ence, 1867. Minutes of New Jersey Conference, 1867. Robert Clarke & Company's General Law Catalogne, Recent American and Imported Books, British Periodicals, Agricultural Works, Medical and Surgical Books, American and British Medical Bibliography for 1866, School and College Text-Books. This is a complete assortment of book catalogues, and bibliopoles and book-buyers will do well to supply themselves with them.

of

LITERATURE IN GERMANY.-The periodicals of Germany, including the German provinces of Austria and Switzerland, in 1866, numbered 2,957 journals; of these, 747 were political, and 2,210 non-political journals. By way of comparison, it may be stated that the total number of journals in France is 1,771, of which 336 are political, and 1,435 non-political. The total number of those in England is 2,064, of which 1,527 are newspapers, and 537 magazines, showing that in this respect Germany occupies the first rank among European nations. The greatest establishments for printing are in Saxony, in which State one-third of all German books, and nearly all the popular illustrated works and journals, are published. SLEEPING-CARS.-The sleeping-cars on the principal railroads of the United States are a monopoly, the profits of which are enjoyed by a few patentees, who have formed themselves into a corporation and buy up all the patents, and the railroad companies are prevented from running cars of this kind themselves. The bargain made between the patentees and the railroad companies is that the patentees shall furnish the cars, and keep the upholstery and bedding in repair, while the railroad company is to furnish the motive power and keep the car in repair. A sleeping-car costs about $5,000, and its annual expense for attendants and incidentals is about $2,000. The average receipts are said to be $30 a day for each car, or $9,000 annually a yearly profit, when the expense is deducted, of $6,100 upon the original investment of $5,000. On some of the great railroads, however, the profits frequently reach 300 per cent. per annum.

AN ANCIENT DINNER.-In the excavations at Pompeii the house of a millionaire has been brought to light. The furniture is of ivory, bronze, and marble. The dining-room couches are extremely rich. The flooring consists of immense mosaics, well preserved in parts, of which the center represents a table laid out for a grand dinner. In the middle, on a large dish, may be seen a splendid peacock; with his tail spread out, and placed back to back with another bird, also of beautiful plumage. Around them are arranged lobsters, one of which holds a blue egg in its claw, a second an oyster, which appears to be fricaseed, as it is open and closed with herbs; the third a rat farcé, and the fourth a small vase filled with fried grasshoppers. Next comes a circle of dishes of fish, interspersed with others of partridges, hares, and squirrels, all with their heads placed between their fore feet. Then comes a row of eggs, oysters, and olives, which in its turn is surrounded by a double circle of peaches, cherries, melons, and other fruits and vegetables. The walls of this trinclinium are covered with fresco paintings of birds, fruits, flowers, game, and fish of all kinds, the whole interspersed with drawings which lend a charm to the whole not easy to describe. On a table of rare wood, carved and inlaid with gold, marble agate, and

lapis lazuli, were found amphoræ still containing wine, and some goblets of onyx.

GROCERS-THEIR ANTIQUITY.-The spice dealers, in the year 1231, in the city of London, formed a trading fraternity, or guild, under the name of Pepperers, and continued till 1345, when they changed the name of their organization to that of the Grocers' Company.

The earlier chronicles of this ancient company, in speaking of their origin, say: "The word 'grocer' was a term first distinguishing merchants of this society in opposition to 'inferior traders;' for that they usually sold by wholes.' To show the great honor of this company, we remark that from the year 1231 to 1650 upward of eighty of its members have occupied the Lord Mayor's chair of the city of London."

Five kings, several princes, eight dukes, three earls, and twenty lords are recorded upon their books as members. Many of the present nobility of Great Britain trace their ancestry to members of this company.

Sir John Chamberlain, grocer, was the founder of the present custom-house of London. The total duties on all foreign goods imported into the realm in 1268 gave a revenue of £75 6s. 10d.

No class of citizens, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, did more to develop a better civilization than these old grocers. If the king required money, they generally responded in full for their quota. Sir John Philpot, grocer, in 1378, fitted out at his own expense a fleet of vessels to repress piracies; also, at his own expense, conveyed an entire army into Brittany, with ships.

He was styled, while living, "the scourge of the Scots, the fright of the French, the delight of the commons, the darling of the merchants, and the hatred of envious lords; but who was at his death lamented, and afterward beloved of all."

Sir John Crosby, grocer, was the founder of the famous Crosby House, Bishopgate-street, London-a man of vast wealth. The hospitals and charity schools built and endowed by these old grocer merchants were The motto of their guild is, "God Grant Grace."-Boston Advertiser.

numerous.

CLIMATE OF RUSSIAN AMERICA.-An article on meteorology, prepared by Professor Henry, of the Smithsonian Institute, for the United States Patent Office Report of 1865, contains the following paragraph illustrative of the climate of North-Western America:

"In the North-Pacific Ocean, on the western side of our continent, the great circle of water passes up along the coast of Japan, recrosses the ocean in the region of the Aleutian Islands, mingles with the fitful current outward through Behring's Strait, and thence down along the north-west coast of North America. In this long circuit, the north-western portion of it is much more cooled than the similar portion of the whirl of the Atlantic. It therefore modifies the temperature of the north-western coast, and produces a remarkable