We need of course trace this sort of history of Christianity no further. We but perform our duty in saying of it as a whole that it is not written in the spirit of Milman, Neander, Gieseler, or Guizot. The apparent spirit of the cold-souled Gibbon, without the splendor of Gibbon's eloquence, pervades the vast area of the dreary pages. If this should "offend," we have only to say that "freedom of thought and expression is the first of all earthly things."

Geographical Studies. By the late Professor CARL RITTER, of Berlin. Translated from the Original German, by WILLIAM LEONHARD GAGE, Translator and Editor of Professor Heinrich Steffen's "Story of my Career," etc. 12mo., pp. 356. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. New York: Sheldon & Co. Cincinnati: George S. Blanchard. 1863. Mr. Gage enjoyed the rare advantage of having been Ritter's pupil, and has a fair prescriptive right as well as the ample ability to represent him to the American reader. Ritter was the great compeer of Humboldt in giving to the science of Geography its re-instauration on a new basis. It was a significant era when the first navigator sailed round the world. It was a wonderful illustration of the immeasurable superiority of human intellect over brute faculties when the savan first comprehended the round globe as a unit, and commenced to evolve a world of philosophy from the comparative survey of its parts. It then takes a stubborn skepticism to prevent your viewing the globe as a nice apple in God's hand. To Humboldt, alas! that cold skepticism belonged; but the heart of Ritter glowed with the rich piety his theme was calculated to awaken. The biography of the man, as given by Mr. Gage, is by no means the least interesting part of the book.

Ritter was born in 1779, published the first edition of his great work in 1817, became Professor of Geography at Berlin in 1820, and died in 1859. His great work, the Erdekund; or, Science of the Earth, is the fountain from which the Physical Geography, so wisely of late introduced into our schools, has emanated. The present volume, translated by Mr. Gage, has something of the defect which he indicates. Like the arc of a stupendous circle, it shows the bent of something grand without bringing much of the whole within our grasp. Yet to thoughtful minds it is truly a suggestive book, and we trust the translator will derive no discouragement from the results.

From his interesting biographical sketch we extract the following pleasing account of Ritter as a Professor:

When he came to Berlin in 1820, and announced in the University his lectures on Universal Geography, there were no hearers at the opening of the course, very few at the close, and but a handful in the following course. Yet still there was a

gain; and ever on went his success, till in 1823, only three years from the beginning of his labors as professor in Berlin, he wrote in his diary: "Full lecture-room; I must have a larger." And so it went on, till the largest hall in the University could hardly contain his pupils. It soon began to be "the thing" to hear Ritter, and nearly every student of the natural sciences was a daily attendant on his course. When I was in Berlin, five years ago, Ritter's room was still full; more than three hundred young men were hearing his lectures. He knew his art well. With almost womanly tact, he seized upon those features which present circumstances made interesting, and culled out of the immense masses of matter lying in his mind just what he could use with the greatest profit. He illustrated freely by excellent maps, and was a master in the use of the blackboard, sketching gracefully and readily whatever made his subject clear. I shall not forget the patriarchal appearance of Carl Ritter in the lecture-room in 1855. He used his notes about half the time, but read them easily, and with great distinctness. Obscure and involved almost without parallel in his written dissertations, yet his style was simple in the lecture-room, and his clear articulation and well-chosen emphasis, combined in a highly musical voice, made it easy to follow him. He was a tall, finely proportioned man, with a noble head, a most sincere and earnest manner, yet unusually quiet and simple. His dress was peculiar when an old man, and no one who frequented the famous Linden Avenue of Berlin would fail to remark that tall and venerable figure, clad in a long blue cloak and broad-rimmed hat, both half a century out of date. He used to wear a large rolling collar, like that worn by a past generation of New England grandfathers; and that, together with the huge horn spectacles, gave him a rusticity of appearance, and a simple friendliness, which captivated every one who knew his learning, his talents, and his heart. It was a characteristic of Ritter, that the external man was so penetrated by his inner nature that the two were inseparable and undistinguishable. He was such a one that if you had looked upon his face you had read the whole man; and therefore he belonged to that class of minds which always make the same impression upon men of all conditions and mental varieties. The cause of this uniform impression is found in his natural humility, in the quiet peacefulness of his inner life, which was more than mere tranquillity: it was the holy calmness of a Christian.-P. 27.

Ritter as a Christian:

He was one of the foremost Christians in Germany. He cherished from his schooldays a living faith in God and Christ, which the loss of his wife, twenty years before his own death, only strengthened. He was a Christian in the full sense of the word. He was a man who spoke little of faith; but it lay deeply at his heart, and showed itself in his active co-operation in the great Christian enterprises of the day. He was one of the most active men in Germany in promoting church harmony; and when the Evangelical Alliance met in Berlin three years ago, Ritter was one of the greatest voices there. He was steadfastly opposed to all forms of strife in the Church; but he cherished, as the chief joy of his life, his faith in Christ and the grace which God had implanted in his heart. God's word was the light of his steps; and it was the great end of all his scientific labors to confirm the truth of the Bible. Hoffman, his pastor, the eminent cathedral preacher of Berlin, uses these words in his address over Ritter's grave: "No one who lived in near intimacy with him will forget the bright glance of his eye when the richness of God's grace was spoken of, nor that serious earnestness of his with which he traced the hand of the eternal in his works; no one will forget that venerable head and that reverential face, as he sat in the house of God during the hour of afternoon worship, nor the few but precious words with which he proclaimed his peace in God through Jesus Christ, and expressed his hope of future glory. No one could approach him without feeling that the richness and vastness of his knowledge were all subordinate to a desire for His praise, by whom, and through whom, and for whom all things have been created. The blessing of the meek was plainly his, and no one could be with him even for a season and not feel it to be so; for he would note the universal peace of Ritter's soul, and the humility of his nature, pictured in every feature of his countenance."—P. 29.

Religion in his science:

Ritter carried his religion into his scientific studies. This earth was to him not a mere dwelling-place for nations; it was the material out of which life is woven ; it was the garment in which the soul clothes itself, the body wherein the spirit formed by God must move. This was Ritter's central thought; all his ideas illustrated, all his researches confirmed it; through the earth as his way he reached God as his goal. The globe was to him but the place where God's kingdom should be founded; and in all his study of man, Christ became the middle point. In his most valuable scientific writings the thought that underlies them allwhether his subject be mountain heights or dark valleys, heaths or cities-is, that everything in the world comes from the counsels of God, and has a relation to the kingdom of Christ. This is the secret of those impressions which his geographical writings produce.-P. 30.

Ritter's written style:

As for beauty of style he had none of it. He fully illustrates the truth of what has been said by an eminent living writer: "The great German authors address themselves not to their country, but to one another. They are sure of a select and learned audience, and they use what is in fact a learned language; they turn their mother tongue into a dialect, eloquent indeed and very powerful, but so difficult, so subtle, and so full of complicated inversions, that to their own lower classes it is entirely incomprehensible."—P. v, Preface.

The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man, with Remarks on Theories of the Origin of Species by Variation. By Sir CHARLES LYELL, F.R.S., author of "Principles of Geology," "Elements of Geology." Illustrated by Wood-cuts. Second American from the last London Edition. 8vo., pp. 526. Philadelphia: George W. Childs. 1863.

In his celebrated treatise entitled "Principles of Geology," published some years ago, Sir Charles Lyell did a great work in establishing in the science of Geology the assumption that no causes were needed in order to account for all the physical changes in the structure of our earth than are now patent, provided the element of time can be assumed to any requisite amount. A large part of the treatise, embodying a history of Geology, traced with much detail, but great calmness, the obstacles met by the advances of Geology from the prepossessions and opposition of Theology. It closed with an extended refutation of Lamarck's theory of development, avowing that for the introduction of man upon the earth, which science showed to have taken place, science had no solution to offer. He could not explicitly accept the fact of immediate creation on the authority of the Hebrew records, as of those documents science could take no cognizance. But he left it to anybody who pleased to supplement the silence of science by such theory or history as they preferred. Science, in Sir Charles Lyell's hands, can know no Bible, no creation, and no God.

We do not say that individually Sir Charles Lyell is either a deist, a pantheist, or an atheist. He is personally, for aught we know, a devout Christian. We only say that in his hands science is pantheistic; just as in the hands of Strauss or Renan or David

If

son biblical criticism is pantheistic. In the present volume (page 421) Sir Charles says: "Hitherto no rival hypothesis has been proposed as a substitute for the doctrine of transmutation; for 'independent creation,' as it is often termed, or the direct intervention of the Supreme Cause, must simply be considered as an avowal that we deem the question to lie beyond the domain of science." Just as explicitly Prof. Huxley says: "At the present moment but one such process of physical causation has any evidence in its favor; or, in other words, there is but one hypothesis regarding the origin of species of animals in general which has any scientific existence that propounded by Mr. Darwin." So that, although geological science can listen to the story of any digger of stones in Abbeville, or any historical record of a past transaction, a suggestion of "independent creation" cannot reach the scientific ear. the matter stopped at this point the offense would not be so very aggravated. The physicist might then be understood to say, "We recognize independent creation as a truth or a probability beyond the boundary lines of our science, and so hold all counter theories in abeyance until they bring an evidence sufficiently strong to falsify that supposed, truth; for it is one thing to be out of the bounds of our one science, and other thing to be out of the bounds of reality." The truth may, in the divisions of knowledge, be cut off from geology; and it cannot be accepted as a part of geology. But when the geologist, after ignoring it as no part of geology, proceeds to inaugurate a theory into a science, on the assumption that no counter view has any existence, and holds the theory valid in default of all counter view, he has no right to expect the concurrence of any man who is anything more than a geologist. If Sir Charles Lyell or Prof. Huxley has no eyes or ears to cognize a non-geological fact, all the rest of the world has. We will allow. them to exclude "independent creation" out of their geology; but, thanks be to God! they cannot exclude it from the domains of truth, any more than they can exclude God from his universe.

The present volume possesses great value for not only the savan, but the enlightened inquirer into the deeply interesting problem it discusses. There is a full detail of all the facts bearing upon the question of the "fossil man." The illustrations are of great value as furnishing the reader clear views of the various localities and objects so frequently named in the discussion. The work closes with some interesting remarks on the moral bearings of the doctrine of development indorsed by the author. The author supposes a point of advancement, in which the being becomes man by mounting to an immortal nature—somewhat as a rare genius, like Milton or Newton,

overtops the level of his race. Natural Theology he holds to remain undisturbed. Materialism is rather counteracted than confirmed. Of the Scripture record he seems to be scientifically ignorant. Should Sir Charles Lyell's book survive some great wreck of the literature of the age, it might be quoted in a future generation as a negative demonstration of the non-existence of the Pentateuch. We say not that the author is a pantheist; but we say that geology in his hands is science according to pantheism.

The book is done up by Mr. Childs in a style worthy its high reputation.

The Great Stone Book of Nature. By DAVID THOMAS ANSTED, M. A., Late Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. 12mo., pp. 335. Philadelphia: George W. Childs. 1863.

You have never studied, you have no time to study, you have not the nerve required to study, Geology; but if you could only be beguiled into the science by mere easy fascinating reading, you would like it. Very well. One of the most accomplished savans here takes you by the hand, cheats you out of your fatigue, shows you by what route to approach, and in what manner to gain possession of this most interesting department of knowledge, in so graceful, semi-poetical, and pictorial a way that you will have taken a tinge of geology for all the rest of your life by spontaneous absorption.

In the first few chapters Mr. Anstead shows that the causes are now going on by which all the changes of the past have been effected. He then traces the forms, objects, and events which those causes have produced. The organic remains, the stores of fuel, the pre-Adamite world, the glittering treasures, the metallic wealth, and the circulation of water, form a train of topics more wonderful than romance and yet true. Why need we pore over Dickens and Owen Meredith when we can obtain Ansted? The typography and engravings are done up by Mr. Childs in a style worthy the work.

A Class-Book of Chemistry, in which the latest Facts and Principles of the Science are Explained, and Applied to the Arts of Life and the Phenomena of Nature. Designed for the Use of Colleges and Schools. A new edition entirely rewritten. With over three hundred illustrations. By EDWARD L. YOUMANS, M.D., author of the "Chemical Chart," "Chemical Atlas," "Handbook of Household Science," etc. 12mo., pp. 460. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1863.

The present volume exhibits plentiful traits of what we believe wę have before called Professor Youman's educational genius. It consists very much in a singular power of clear, concise expression,