was certain to go wrong. The best opportunity Christianity ever had of working its way into the heart of these four hundred millions under the patronage of men who swept away every vestige of idolatry, circulated the Scriptures, solicited missionaries, prohibited opiumsmoking, torture in courts of law, prostitution, the slave trade, deformity of feet, and shaving of heads - was wantonly thrown away. Lin-le asserts that a single missionary's refusal to establish himself at the rebel capital ruined the rebel cause, and forfeited the greatest missionary opening of our time. This seems an extravagance. But it is hardly possible to keep calm, and read the capture of town after town, effected by English artillery, completed by the indiscriminate massacre of every man, woman, and child, with tortures too horrid to be told. And, even after Major Gordon was reproved by Sir F. Bruce for violating his promised protection by permitting the murder of thirty thousand at Soochow, in the capture of Wusee, Karangfoo, Hwhasoo, and Changchowfoo, like atrocities were perpetrated under the military superintendence of this same English officer. Nor were the battles such as civilized men should have engaged in a second time. The loss of the rebel natives in a single contest would amount to thousands, when not more than a single Englishman would be slain, because wooden stockades were assailed by sixty-two pounders, and defended by bamboo spears, gingalls, and brickbats. To rain destruction for twenty hours upon utterly helpless natives, who could not make any effectual reply, - in support of an effete tyranny which insulted its very defenders, paid no debts save upon compulsion, and arrayed itself against every step of civilization, - is not the warfare of which an Englishman should be proud. And all this defeat of new-born hopes, this conflagration of hundreds of towns, this starving of hundreds of thousands by the destruction of public granaries everywhere, to be wrought under the mask of civilized neutrality!

F. W. H.

TRANSYLVANIA is shown by Mr. Boner* to be one of the most backward countries in Europe, - rich in mines, of an exceedingly fertile soil, with baths of wonderful efficacy, and yet quite undeveloped. Partly because of its utter destitution of railroads, partly because of the superstitious attachment of its natives to the old ways, partly because of excessive taxation and governmental oppression, the people are not happy, or progressive, or worthy of their position. Many of the Transylvanian customs have been kept hundreds of years unchanged: the same antiquated looms are employed as men admire to-day upon the monuments of Egypt; the same custom of storing the grain in the church-vaults as was caused by the invasions from Turkey; the ornaments of the women even are hundreds of years old; the very sayings of grandparents are repeated as unquestionable oracles; every thing new is wrong, every thing antiquated is still the mode. To the best measures of the Austrian Government the Transylvanian answer is, " It is an innovation;" so that the wisdom of statesmen and the policy of cabinets seem to be kept at bay by this ignorant conservatism. Meanwhile, superb ruins all over the country are being destroyed for peasants' huts, public roads are left to perish for want of repairs, and only the Wallach and the Gypsy are increasing in numbers, wealth, and influence.

Disappointed of any information as to the Unitarian Church of Transylvania, we have to be satisfied with an anecdote or two about the Greek, agreeing as they do with what we have seen of that effete institution in adjoining lands. A friend of the author's, finding a party of natives dragging their priest along as prisoner on a Saturday, was informed that they were about to lock him up, so that he might not be too tipsy the next morning to read service. Another Greek priest begged of the Protestant minister some paper that was written upon, and was furnished with his daughter's old copy-books. Afterwards, strips of these books were given out by this illiterate priest as marriage certificates. Still another threatened his people, that, if they did not fast and pray more, God would send grasshoppers to desolate the land; and the same threat was found to have been circulated through the district.

Kossuth is spoken of very plainly as a consummate orator and an admirable writer, but neither a statesman nor a soldier; sincere and well-intentioned, but lax in discipline, irresolute, and insatiable. Boner's view, the view of the Hungarian nobility, is that Kossuth gathered around him a body of enthusiastic followers by the power of his eloquence, precipitated measures for which the better classes were not prepared, and hurried on reform faster than it was possible for the people to go. The failure of his measures injured the country exceedingly, though many of the enmities excited by the war are already forgotten, and no idea of another struggle seems to be entertained.

F. W. H.

PROFESSOR SMYTH has made a very beautiful and curious book in defence of a very fantastic and untenable theory. He solves the meaning of the Great Pyramid * in a strange way, which is more creditable to his ingenuity and piety than to his good sense. He separates the Great Pyramid by a broad line from all the other Egyptian pyramids. These may have been the tombs of kings; but the Great Pyramid is the divinely ordered and the divinely fixed standard of time, weight, and measure. It was set in its place by the special appointment of Jehovah, that all the world, henceforth and for ever, might know how to reckon days and weeks, feet and inches, pints and quarts, pecks and bushels. Such a standard was needed for the world, in the chaos of clashing opinions and customs; and, at last, after four thousand years, it has been revealed by Mr. John Taylor, whose interpreter and defender the Edinburgh astronomer is content to be. This monument was intended to outlast the ages; and, if the nations are wise, they will consult its symmetrical sides, its angles, its passages, its chinks in the wall, and especially the mysterious coffer in its central chamber, and adjust by this all their methods of time, space, and quantity. The riddle of the ages has at last been read, and England is summoned to pause from the sacrilege that would forsake the inspired pyramid-system for the profane decimals of unbelieving France.

Professor Smyth comes forth as a social and moral reformer in this key to the scientific marvel. It is to be feared, however, that he has damaged his scientific argument by his questionable exegesis of Scripture. His views of the Pentateuch are by no means in harmony with the views of Colenso; and he gives an earlier date and a more historic accuracy to the statements of the Book of Job than any careful critic will sustain. The scientific argument, too, has to be strained, in order to bring the tables of weight and measure which England uses into harmony with those lines of Egyptian stone. There are uncomfortable fractions which vex his calculations. All his enthusiasm for the new theory cannot blind his readers to the fact, that he leaves discrepancies unexplained, and that he twists resemblances into identities. We do not think that his fine drawings and photographs and diagrams dispel that mystery of the colossal monu

* An Inheritance in the Great Pyramid. By PROFESSOR C. PIAZZI SMYTH, F.R.SS., L. & E., Astronomer Royal for Scotland. With Photograph, Map, and Plates. London: Alexander Strahan & Co., 1864. 12mo. pp. xvi. 400.

ment which has reigned in all the stories of the Pyramid since the day of Herodotus. And, after reading the work carefully, figures, fancies, digressions, pious protests, and all, we are prepared to say that it is unsatisfactory; that the theory is "not proven;" and that science still waits for the solution of the problem. We do not think that the British Association will be hindered in its favor for a uniform decimal system by this solemn warning from a mountain of stone and an empty sarcophagus. Some other must answer for us the question, "Who built the Pyramid, and for what was it built?"

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In the expectant period of American poetical literature, - thirty or forty years ago, - perhaps no name was more prominent, or associated with more confident anticipations, than that of Percival. It is pleasant to freshen the associations, which school-books and popular reputation have connected with it, by the interesting and beautiful biography lately published. The fame of the poet has grown somewhat dim. He soon wearied of the task of keeping it bright by renewal; and there was not the live quality in it, or the patient artist workmanship, to make it classic and imperishable. So that we learn, with a sort of surprise, how high his rank was once thought to be among our native poets. And it is with still greater surprise that one comes to know how utterly that brief youthful fame was eclipsed by the solid achievements of his later life. One of the rarest heroisms, one of the painfullest tragedies, one of the noblest martyrdoms, in the history of letters, we find recorded here. A narrative direct, simple, full, unobtrusive, is filled out with letters of personal reminiscence of singular interest. Fighting with penury, disappointment, baffled ambition, and a temperament morbid to the very verge of insanity, here was a mind of almost unequalled wealth of positive attainments of restless activity, of scholarly and scientific faculty, bordering close on the highest genius. We do not know whether to call such a life unhappy, though, in almost all its outward aspects, it is very sad. The biography is very instructive, - if such a temper and mind could learn from precept or example. It is certainly one of the most interesting, curious, and valuable records that our literary annals have afforded.

NEW PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

The Works of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke. Revised edition. Vol. IX. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co. pp. 493. (Containing Articles of Charge against Warren Hastings, and Speeches in his Impeachment.)

The History of Christianity, from the Birth of Christ to the Abolition of Paganism in the Roman Empire. By Henry Hart Milman, D.D., Dean of St. Paul's. 3 vols. 12mo. New York: W. J. Widdleton.

A History of the Gypsies; with Specimens of the Gypsy Language. By Walter Simson. Edited, with Preface, Introduction, and Notes, and a Disquisition on the Past, Present, and Future of Gypsydom, by James Simson. 12mo. pp. 575. New York: M. Doolady.

On Democracy. 8vo. pp. 418; also, The Making of the American Nation; or, the Rise and Decline of Oligarchy in the West. By J. Arthur Partridge. 8vo. pp. 523. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co.

An American Family in Germany. By J. Ross Browne. Illustrated by the Author. 12mo. pp. 381; The Race for Wealth. By Mrs. J. H. Riddell; All in the Dark. By J. Sheridan Le Fanu; Sir Brooke Fosbrooke. By Charles Lever; The Beauclercs, Father and Son. By Charles Clarke; Madonna Mary. By Thomas Oliphant. New York: Harper & Brothers. Second Series. Boston:

Melibœus Hipponax. The Biglow Papers.

Ticknor & Fields. pp. 258.

The Poems of Alfred B. Street. New York: Hurd & Houghton. 2 vols. pp. 302, 338.

Flower-de-Luce. By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. With Illustrations. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. pp. 72.

Maud Muller. By John G. Whittier. With Illustrations by W. J. Hennersy. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 8vo. pp. 12.

The King's Ring. By Theodore Tilton. Illustrated by Frank Jones. New York: Hurd & Houghton. pp. 8. (Quaintly and tastefully illuminated; a beautiful fancy piece, with a moral.)

Reading without Tears; or, a Pleasant Mode of Learning to Read. Part Second. Sqr. 18mo. pp. 292. New York: Harper & Brothers.

Red-Letter Days in Applethorpe. By Gail Hamilton. pp. 141; Stories of Many Lands. By Grace Greenwood. pp. 206; A Summer in Leslie Goldthwaite's Life. By Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. pp. 230. Illustrated. Boston: Ticknor & Fields.

Ned Nevins, the Newsboy; or, Street Life in Boston. By Henry Morgan. Illustrated. Boston: Lee & Shepard. pp. 424.

The Arabian Nights' Entertainments. A new edition, revised, with Notes, by the late Rev. George Tyler Townsend. Sixteen Illustrations. New York: Hurd & Houghton. pp. 583.

The Sanctuary: a Story of the Civil War. author of "The Story of the Great March." pp. 286. New York: Harper & Brothers.

By George Ward Nichols,
With Illustrations. 12mo.

Personal Recollections of Distinguished Generals. By William F. G. Shanks. 12mo. pp. 347. Illustrated. New York: Harper & Brothers. The Life and Light of Men. An Essay. By John Young, LL.D. (Edin.) 12mo. pp. 497. Alexander Strahan, London and New York.

First Years in Europe. By George H. Calvert. Boston: William V. Spencer. pp. 303.

Morning by Morning; or, Daily Readings for the Family and the Closet. By C. H. Spurgeon. New York: Sheldon & Co. pp. 403.