write for the young and the unlearned should be peculiarly careful, even as to the names they introduce into their pages. If a rationalist or neologian, or other heterodox writer, must be quoted, let the mention of his name be accompanied by some guarding remark; otherwise those who read really for information, and are little versed in controversy, will infallibly consider every author as a safe guide who is quoted by "so good a man as Mr. ***;" more especially should he bear a name so time-honoured and universally beloved as that of WILBERForce.

We would just mention, by the way, that there are several typographical errors in these foot-note references, which should be attended to. At page 27, note 18, we are referred to Herodotus for a passage in the Bible; and vice versá, note 19, to the sixtysixth of Jeremiah for the opinion of Herodotus. This note should have been affixed to the 18, and the chapter should have been the forty-sixth; or, better still, 2 Chron. xxxv. 20. Again, at page 82, note 32, we are referred to iv. Ezra 21. for Artaxerxes, whom we do not find there: probably the figures should have been vii. 23. We do not perceive any table of errata, nor do we know how many similar misprints there may be. We happened accidentally to discover these.

On archæologic subjects, too, we must say a few words. What does Mr. Wilberforce mean by calling Ararat "the centre of Asia?" (page 9) whereas it happens to be situated at the western side of that continent; and, comparatively speaking, near its boundary.

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The following sentence, in the next page, seems to us somewhat mysterious. "Thus we are assured that we who live in Europe are more akin to the inhabitants of India than either of us are to the Arabians, because our languages are farther removed from theirs than they are from one another." (p. 10.) It is clear enough who "we" are; not so who are they," and " one another." The repeated assertion, that the Indians are of Japheth's race, appears to us somewhat extraordinary, more especially when based on dissimilarity of language; as the Sancreet is usually considered to be much more cognate to the Shemitic languages than to any of the dialects of Europe. The similarities existing between India and Ancient Egypt, which Mr. Wilberforce notices (page 22) as a consequence of Egypt's early settlement, were so strong as to lead Kæmpfer, Brucker, and others to view India as an Egyptian colony. Perhaps the more reasonable mode of accounting for this striking likeness between these distant lands, is to consider the Egyptian priests as an Asiatic colony, which the ancients believed them to be (V. Ouvaroff's Essay on the Mysteries

of Eleusis, 112); and there we shall see that the doctrines, and other points of similarity, set out, in opposite directions, from the common centre at Babel, and reached India on the one side, and Egypt on the other, still retaining their original form: hence the resemblance between these ancient and interesting countries.

Mr. Wilberforce seems to have some singular ideas upon the origin of nations. At page 58 he says, "The Chaldees, a people of Japhethic" race," and quotes Gesenius as his authority, without mentioning to what work he refers. Now we have consulted Gesenius' Hebrew Lexicon, the only work of his in our possession, and we there find him quoting himself against the opinion of Michaelis and others, that the Chaldees were a Sclavonic race. Their very name (Chashdion or Cashdion) seems to stamp them of the race of Ham, at least so some of the learned have considered. At any rate, if they were, as Mr. Wilberforce says, Japhethic race,' "who had "become the masters" of Babylon, it is singular that the language spoken by them, and called by their name, should be so closely allied to the Hebrew, which is the parent of the Shemitic languages, and of some of the Hamite ones, if not indeed of every other. The resemblance between the Hebrew and Chaldee is indeed so strong, that they do not differ more from each other than does the language of Lisbon from that of Madrid, or the English of St. James's-street from that spoken in St. Giles'.

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Mr. Wilberforce has also a strong tendency towards what has been called "the historic system" of mythology-that scheme of Euhemerus, which represented all the gods of paganism to be only deified men. Undoubtedly the deeds of martial heroes were much mixed up, by blind tradition, with the legends of the gods; but we must believe that the extraordinary births, conquests, deaths, and resurrections of many among the ancient deities had a higher origin than any mere apotheosis of men.

As we approach the end of the book, we find the argument sadly crippled by the limitation of the Fifth Empire to the invisible and spiritual kingdom of Christ; by this means the parallel between it and its predecessors is nearly destroyed, and the grand prophecies of Scripture are shorn of half their meaning. Mr. Wilberforce has exhibited some of the other empires, as growing up during the last stages of those that immediately preceded them; and indeed he describes the kingdom of Christ as not fully developed until the fall of the Roman empire. Now, we will only say that, had he considered the present spiritual kingdom as still growing up under the last phase of the Roman power, Poperyand as being only the forerunner and germ of that universal king

dom, both spiritual and temporal, which is predicted, but has never yet been accomplished-instead of describing it as the sole end and mighty termination of the whole Divine scheme, his plan would have been far more impressive and harmonious.

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Having thus very fully stated our objections to a work which a few alterations would render invaluable, we must refresh ourselves and our readers by extracting some of its beauties. We should like to present a great many of them, including Mr. Wilberforce's attacks upon Arianism, Popery, and the infidelity of Gibbon but our limits will not allow us to give more than the following:"The first of the four monarchies had now reached its height. Its capital, Babylon, was the greatest as well as the most ancient city in the world. The most civilized and best-peopled portions of the earth were subject to it. The heirs of that Divine promise, which has bound together the most distant parts of the world, were swallowed up for a time in its greatness; but just at this season, He who has given bounds to the deep was pleased to declare what should be the limits to man's ambition, and where its proud waves should be stayed. At the very moment when the first empire had reached its greatness, and when it touched upon the humble polity of Israel, which its breath seemed enough to sweep away, God declared the vanity of earthly greatness, and the eternal endurance of his people. The prophecy of the latter days was given when the spiritual and temporal seed came thus in contact with one another. The concurrence of both was needed to give expression to God's decree, as the union of both was needed to fulfil it. It seemed, therefore, as if another of those great epochs were at hand, when the history of mankind was to be gathered into a single channel. But the union was but for a season. It was not given to the possessors of Nimrod's corrupt kingdom, even though it had fallen into the hands of the more vigorous Chaldeans, to combine permanently with the heirs of promise, and thus to produce between them those great events, which were to consummate the fortunes of the world. The office of this first monarchy was but to lead the way; to indicate what should follow. Yet, in order to shew how it ministered to the great things of aftertimes, the temporal power was chosen to receive the vision of what should follow, when its course terminated in the kingdom of Christ."—(pp. 65, 66.)

The Roman power is thus described :

"Thus that spectacle was exhibited which Daniel had long before discerned with the eye of prophecy. To devour,' to tread down,' and to break in pieces,' was exactly Rome's office among the nations. Every thing must bend and yield to the iron sceptre of its sway. Before time the aspect of the world had been diversified. There were republics in Europe, and monarchies in Asia; the East had her cavalry, the West her foot-soldiers; some cities were enriched by commerce, others distinguished for arts and arms. But now all was frozen up in the cold uniformity of this iron empire. The old forms, whether of empire or freedom, were trampled under foot and forgotten. The ministers of the world sent forth her prætors and proconsuls to rule instead of kings: she spread abroad her colonies to be a model and rule for cities; she imposed her laws and customs on nations the most dissimilar; and so dreadful and terrible' was she that none might gainsay her. Vast roads, uniform and unbending, were the tracks which she made for herself throughout the world, that so the most inaccessible countries might be laid open to her armies; and in making them, she hewed through mountains and filled up valleys, as though the earth was as subject to her as its inhabitants." (p. 157, 158.)

We have room for only one more extract, on the establishment of Christianity in Rome:

"Now, then, came the conflict which was to decide the history of the world. For a little hour the victory seemed in suspense-while Paganism and the Church were entwined in the death-struggle together. The eyes of all men were on the event: for the fall of Dagon was not, as of old, in darkness and silence-it was acted on the middle stage of earth-its scene-plot was the Roman empire. The Church of God had emerged from Babylonish bondage, and flourished under Persian protection: it had spread through the channels of Grecian civilization, and now it was to exact homage from the majesty of Rome; it had trampled on the pride of the Stoics, and contemned the alluring arts of Epicurus; and now it defied the swords of thirty legions, and the arm which swayed from Euphrates to the ocean."(p. 238.)

MEMOIR OF THE REV. JOHN GEORGE BREAY, B.A., &c. &c. With a Selection from his Correspondence.. By a MEMBER OF HIS CONGREGATION. London: Hamilton. 1841. THE LIFE AND REMAINS OF THE REV. ROBERT HOUSMAN, A.B., &c. By R. F. HOUSMAN, Esq. London: Simpkin. 1841.

THE biography of Christian men, and especially of Christian Ministers, can never be devoid of interest to the Church, unless it be most unfairly or most injudiciously compiled unless the brighter tints on the canvass be so diffused throughout the portraiture, as to exclude altogether the grateful relief which is derived from the contrast of shade, and we have before our eyes "some faultless monster whom the world ne'er saw" instead of a man of like passions, like frailties, like infirmities with ourselves. Where the Christian is permitted, however, to tell his own taleto unravel the mysteries of his own experience, and to develope in his own words the consciousness of what passes within-that contrast will not be wanting. In the instances now before us, especially the former, we should have risen from the Memoir with the painful sensation of one who had been occupied in gazing upon an overstrained and exaggerated picture, had it not been for the most seasonable accompaniment of the Correspondence. We do not, however, say this as reflecting in the slightest degree upon the candour or judgment of the intelligent writer. We entertain no manner of doubt that he faithfully declared "what he knew and testified what he had seen;" and we are persuaded that his intention was simply to allow Mr. Breay to say concerning himself what none could have said of him. This we infer from his expressed

desire," that every reader may be enabled to turn from the perusal of his narrative, and particularly of the interspersed letters, with a resolution, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to go and do likewise."

It will not be expected, nor is it to be desired, that we should enter into detail respecting the subject of either of these volumes. We should only transfer a meagre and scanty outline to our pages, which must be filled up by reference to the works themselves; and we would not willingly furnish any "fellow-labourer in the word and doctrine" with an apology for leaving unread such a work as the Memoir of Mr. Breay. He was indeed "a burning and a shining light"-but he was so, without any of those early indications of surpassing talent which seem from the beginning to distance all competitors-and even without any striking manifestations of that innate energy and expansiveness of mind, which no sooner finds a region suited to its full display, than it kindles into active operation, and astonishes those who had not even dreamed of its existence. Mr. Breay was not, certainly, a man of extraordinary powers (though few knew better how to combine good sense and sound doctrine,) nor yet, perhaps, a man of extraordinary diligence and perseverance (though few, we think, have accomplished more important designs within a similar sphere of action, and in a given space of time,) but he did unquestionably possess in an eminent degree one quality of superlative excellence as a Minister of the Gospel-singleness of mind. Of him it might be said, as of the Apostle, that "one thing he did"-one object he pursued he gave himself WHOLLY to those things; he brought all the powers of a manly and vigorous, if not a superior mind, to bear upon the work of the ministry-and the consequence was, that "his profiting appeared to all." In all that man admires in the scholar, and eulogizes in the theologian, he was not, and he did not profess or even desire to be, among the Lights of his age, but few have excelled him in the "wisdom of winning souls." And verily, even on this side the grave, he had all the recompense which could be offered in the esteem, love, and we might say veneration of thousands of the population among whom he ministered. If the mingled prayers of many sorrowing hearts could have detained him in the body, his life would have been prolonged to this hour; and when it pleased God, in the flower of his age, and apparently in the meridian of his usefulness, to summon him to his rest, "devout men followed him to his burial, and made great lamentation over him." The memorials of his earthly sojourn remain in the place of his ministrations, and by them he, being dead, yet speaketh-and will speak to generations yet to come.