The FOURTH article is a brief but scholarly and effective discussion of the doctrine of destructionism as presented in the late work of Prof. Hudson. It deals with the doctrine in a purely argumentative spirit, as a heresy not in itself damnable should be treated. Indeed, when we consider the immense amount of occult and subtle Universalism pervading not only the age but the congregation and the Church, we have sometimes thought that there is perhaps a large class of minds whom this doctrine-substituting a less for a greater evil-may rescue from doctrinal and moral ruin. At the same time it is a counteractive of the vagaries of spiritism, just as the infidelity of some of our foreign population is a counterbalance against the Romanism of the remainder. Yet the spread of this theory would as surely, though in a less degree, produce that lax theology, that low morality, and that "lukewarm Church" which Olshausen found, to his cost, resulted from Restorationism. Article FIFTH, by Prof. Shedd, of Andover, is a hortatory lecture in favor of reviving the life of effete Calvinism in New England Congregationalism. It calls for a revival of a more intense creed spirit in that part of the Christian Church. We imagine this to be a very hazardous proposition. Prof. Shedd recounts, we imagine in vain, the imaginary triumphs of old Calvinism over Arminianism-of Robinson over Episcopius. Episcopius not only still stands upon our shelves a monument of theological greatness unsurpassed by anything Calvinism can show, but his doctrines are now quite more truly the doctrines of New England Congregationalism itself than the doctrines of Calvin or Robinson. To revive the dogmatic tone of the Puritan Churches would be to revive not life but feud, not peace but a sword. This very number of the Bibliotheca Sacra bears in its pages, as we have above quoted, a signal instance with how little respect a minister of a professedly Calvinistic Church at the present day may speak of real Calvinism. This is a superior number of this most scholarly of all the quarterlies in the English language on either side the ocean. II.-Foreign Reviews. I. THE BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW, July, 1858.-1. Buckle on Civilization-Destiny and Intellect: 2. Political Economy in France: 3. Swainson on the Creeds: 4. Montaigne-his Life and Writings: 5. Dr. Samuel Brown and his Theories: 6. Guizot's Memoirs: 7. Dr. Trench's Sermons; 8. India and the House of Commons: 9. Our Epilogue on Affairs and Books. II. THE LONDON REVIEW, July, 1858.-1. Inspiration of Scripture-Current Theories: 2. Lover's Lyrics of Ireland: 3. Points in English Grammar: 4. Sacred Typology: 5. Volcanoes: 6. German Lutheranism: 7. Novels by the Author of the Heir of Redcliffe: 8. Buddhism: 9. Marriage with a deceased Wife's Sister. III. THE WESTMINSTER REVIEW, JULY, 1858.-1. Calvin at Geneva: 2. The Last Days of Church Rates: 3. Domestic Animals of Scotland: 4. Cardinal Wiseman's "Recollections:" 5. Medical Education: 6. Women Artists: 7. Recent Astronomy and the Nebular Hypothesis. IV. THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN EVANGELICAL REVIEW, July, 1858.-1. Professor Baden Powell on Christianity without Judaism: 2. The Tenth Century: 3. Edwards and the Theology of New-England: 4. The Revival of the Slave Trade: 5. The Office of Deacon: 6. Dr. Barclay on the City of the Great King: 7. Brownson's Exposition of Himself: 8. St. Hilaire on the Reformation in Spain: 9. Calvinism and Arminianism-Whately and Faber. V. THE JOURNAL OF SACRED LITERATURE AND BIBLICAL RECORD, July, 1858.— 1. Exegesis of the Old Testament-Genesis: 2. The Relation between the Teaching of the Apostles St. Peter and St. James on Justification: 3. Life and Times of Zwingli: 4. Wisdom as a Person in the Book of Proverbs: 5. Observations on the Chronology of our Lord's Birth, Death, and Duration of his Ministry 6. Biblical Revision-the Epistle to the Romans: 7. Syriac Literature-the Acts of Addi. VI. THE CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER, July, 1858.—1. The Choephora of Eschylus: 2. The Collects of the Church: 3. The Church Missionary Society and the Indian Episcopate: 4. Christian Societies: 5. Sermons: 6. Bishop Gobat and the Jerusalem Bishopric: 7. Catholic Antidotes: 8. The Declaration of the Six Scottish Bishops. VII. THE QUARTERLY REVIEW, July, 1858.-1. Admiral Blake: 2. Buckle's History of Civilization in England: 3. Iron Bridges: 4. Life of Wycliffe: 5. Professor Blunt and his Works: 6. Shipwrecks: 7. The British Museum: 8. The Condition and Future of India. VIII. THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND QUARTERLY REVIEW, August, 1858.-1. The Protector: 2. Recent Fictions: 3. The Religions of India; 4. History of the Jesuits: 5. The English Language: 6. Philosophy of History: 7. Reign of Henri IV: 8. Quarterly Report of Facts and Progress. IX. THE NORTH BRITISH REVIEW, August, 1858.-1. Châteaubriand: 2. Gladstone's Homer: 3. State Papers-Pre-Reformation Period: 4. Biblical Interpretation -Epistles to the Corinthians: 5. British Art-Painting and Sculpture: 6. The Modern English Drama: 7. Egypt and Syria-Western Influence: 8. Researches on Light-Sanatory-Scientific and Esthetical: 9. Our Indian Army: 10. The Literary Fund Reformers: 11. Political Parties. It is saying much to affirm as we do that the North British is nearly fulfilling the promise of its early days. The article on Châteaubriand does justice to the epochal character of his literary productions, to the great influence and great errors of his statesmanship, and to the real mutual injury done by his literary and statesmanly reputations to each other. Gladstone's work on Homer is reviewed by a scholar who appreciates with scholarly enthusiasm both the great original and the eminent commentator. The article on Biblical Interpretations severely criticises the neologism of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, and contrasts his Commentary on Corinthians with that of Dr. Hodge, of Princeton. The article on Light is a specimen of the essays so frequent in the English quarterlies, treating scientific topics in a popular spirit and with brilliant style. From the article on the Modern English Drama, we quote part of a very unique notice of a poem by an unknown writer, published in America: "Of Saul: a Drama, in Three Parts,' published anonymously at Montreal, we have before us perhaps the only copy which has crossed the Atlantic. At all events we have heard of no other, as it is probable we should have done, through some public or private notice, seeing that the work is indubitably one of the most remarkable English poems ever written out of Great Britain. This copy was given to the writer of the present article by Mr. Nathaniel Hawthorne, to whose recommendation of this, to him and to us, unknown Canadian poet, our readers and English literature generally are beholden for their first introduction to a most curious work. 'Saul' is in three parts, each of five acts, and altogether about ten thousand lines long. What much adds to the startling effect of this poem is the manifest fact that the writer is some person who has received little or no education, in the ordinary sense of the term. Not only does he make ridiculous mistakes in the commonest Latin quotations-for example, he has 'from DE PROFUNDUS' twice over-but he is apparently ignorant of English grammar, and even of spelling. There are two things, however, which he proves that he knows, namely, the Bible and human nature; and a poet cannot be said to be really uneducated who knows these well. Shakspeare he also knows far better than most men know him; for he has discerned and adopted his method as no other dramatist has done. He takes not virtue and morality, and their opposites generally, as other dramatists do, but these under the single aspect of their dependence upon spiritual influences, of whatever kind: the direct influence of the divine Spirit, and the influence of good spirits, and of the principalities and powers of darkness, and even the mysterious influences of music, the weather, etc., upon the moral state of the soul. Like most of Shakspeare's plays, this drama has the appearance of being strangely chaotic. There are hundreds of passages for the existence of which we cannot account, until the moral clue is found, and it would never be found by a careless and unreflecting reader; for the work is exceedingly artistic, and there are few things in recent poetry so praiseworthy as the quiet and unobtrusive way in which the theme is treated. În a work written upon this noble symbolic method, one is never sure of exactly stating the author's meaning-indeed, as we have said of Shakspeare, the meaning is too full to be stated more briefly than by the whole poem; but we are sure that we are not far from the writer's intention when we say that in Saul he represents a man who is eminently the creature of spiritual influences; who is of the happiest sensitive and perceptive constitution, but lacks the one thing needful, the principle of faith, which would have given the will to submit himself to the good influence and resist the bad. Faith wanting, all his works fell short,' is the only explicit statement in the whole poem of this idea; but the whole poem indirectly implies it. This view of Saul's character, which is amply justified by Scripture history, is carried out and illustrated with an elaborate subtlety of which it is impossible for us to give our readers an adequate idea. The evil spirit of the king is brought personally, under the name of Malzah, upon the stage; and we are made to understand Saul's nature, and the nature of all who are the more or less passive slaves of natural and spiritual influences ab extra, by the exaggeration of this character in the spirit himself, who is depicted with an imaginative veracity, which we do not exaggerate in saying has not been equaled in our language by any but the creator of Caliban and Ariel. Malzah is decidedly well-disposed,' like many another evil spirit, human or otherwise; he knows his faults; is almost changed, for the moment, into a good spirit by artistic influences, especially music; he has attained to be a deep philosopher through the habitual observation of himself; and does not at all like the evil work of destroying the soul of Saul-a work which he undertook voluntarily, and to which he returns as the fit takes him. The following passages will carry out what we have said, and will illustrate the oddity, subtlety, and originality of this writer's language. Malzah tries to exonerate himself, in soliloquy, from the guilt of destroying Saul: "I've had no part in this. I'm sorry too (Like thee, king,) that I ever came to thee. Zounds! Why, I ought to have strong penance set me, Or else be branded with some sign of shame For having volunteered for his undoing, There's no essential honor nor good i'th' world, But a pure selfishness is all in all Nay, I could curse my demonhood, and wish X. THE EDINBURGH REVIEW, July, 1858.-1. Hugh Miller: 2. Thiers's History of the Consulate and the Empire: 3. The Progress and Spirit of Physical Science: 4. Canning's Literary Remains: 5. The Health of the Army: 6. The Celts and the Germans: 7. Posthumous Memoirs and Songs of Béranger: 8. Chronicles of the Teutonic Knights: 9. Froude's King Henry VIII: 10. The Hindú Drama: 11. Earl Grey on Parliamentary Government. FROM the splendid article on The Progress and Spirit of Physical Science we extract a passage on a point where physics and metaphysics come in curious contact. In the doctrine of definite proportions, the science of chemistry seems to establish the principle of molecular action, demonstrate the old atomic theory, and land in rather homœopathic results: "If seeking to devote in a few words the most striking characteristic of modern science as directed to matter, we should come at once to the principle of molecular action, in its present application to physical research. Through this doctrine has been made man's deepest inroad into the secrets of the natural world. No single principle is so variously applicable to every branch of knowledge; none has done so much to promote discovery, or to authenticate and give the form and force of law to the results obtained. And yet it may be said to have had a lawless origin, and to have been long a play of human phantasy under the garb of science. We cannot here travel back to those early speculations on atoms which entered so largely into the staple of the ancient philosophy; and which the poetry of Lucretius has better consecrated to later times than the most subtle prose of the Greek philosophers. In every intermediate age, even the darkest, the atomic doctrine, in one form or other, has kept a certain hold on the minds of learned or speculative men; a natural effect of the facility with which it lends itself to any hypothesis, however crude, regarding matter and material phenomena. It was reserved for our own time to render it at once the subject and instrument of legitimate science, the foundation of laws next to mathematical in scope and exactness, and the most powerful of all aids to ulterior research. "This great achievement, for such it is, we owe mainly to Chemistry; and to John Dalton, the Quaker chemist, more appropriately than to any one besides. Close approaches had been made before to the doctrine of definite proportions, as represented by the molecules of matter in their combinations. Such anticipa tions are recorded in the case of every great discovery. But Dalton (speedily seconded indeed by other great chemists) first gave clear declaration to the principle; and illustrated its applications, mighty in their universality, with a simple sagacity belonging to the genius and habits of the man. The simplicity of his early experiments is, indeed, characteristic also of the manner in which many of the highest truths in science have been reached. Facts the most familiar to common observation, and thence disregarded by common intellects, have furnished better materials and suggestions for discovery than the most recondite theories. "It has been justly said by Sir J. Herschel, that number, weight, and measure are the foundations of all exact science. The atomic doctrine has acquired from chemistry these conditions, which give it substance and certainty as a physical truth. When analysis and synthesis, carefully applied to compound bodies, disclosed a constant and definite proportion of the combining elements, and an equivalent or multiple ratio of parts in every chemical change, the requirements of number and weight and measure were all met by the discovery. Numbers became needful to express the proportion of the combining molecules; and in every case, even of the most complex chemical compounds, they have been found to fulfill this object so exactly, that combination, yet unknown, may be predicted with assurance as the results of future research. The absolute weight of these elementary molecules is unresolved, and will probably ever remain so; but their relative weight is known to us through the proportions in which they severally combine; and this method is checked and counter-checked through such vast variety of compounds, that every chance of error is done away. Measure, the third condition proposed, is expressed chiefly in the combining volumes of gases -invariable always, whether under the simplest proportions shown by analysis, or the multiple measures of other chemical compounds. "Here then we have a great law, or group of laws, thoroughly attested; of high generality; and proving, because based upon, that atomic or molecular constitution of matter which alone could afford such results. Whatever name we give to them, these atomic parts exist in all bodies, and determine by their own nature or arrangement the properties and functions of each. That they are minute beyond all human measure is proved, not only by the chemical relations just denoted, but also by those relations to heat, light, electricity, and mechanical force which experiment has demonstrated to us. "No hindrance to belief need exist on this score. When, even in organic or compound material structure, the microscope tells us, by computation, that two cubic feet of the Tripoli slate of Billin contain one hundred and forty billions of fossil infusoria; that there are some millions of distinct fibers in the crystalline lens of the cod-fish, and that a single fungus (Bovista Giganteum) is composed of cellules far exceeding this number-we infer in reason, though not by comprehension, what the elementary molecules must be, so organised into living forms. Looking to simple inorganic matter, or what we suppose such, we have before us a recent memoir of Faraday's on the Optical Phenomena of thin Gold Films and Gold Fluids,' where in one experiment a ruby tint, equal to that of a red rose, was given to a fluid by a quantity of gold not exceeding 600 part of its weight. We quote another instance from this paper, as well expounding the spirit which prompts and guides these bold incursions into the atomic world. In seeking to procure the thinnest film of gold, retaining continuity, for the purpose of noting its effects on light passing through it, he obtained by a chemical action on gold-leaf, films not exceeding 5000 of an inch in thickness. The number of vibrations in an inch of the red ray being thirty-seven thousand six hundred and forty, it follows that each such film cannot occupy more than a hundredth part of the vibration of light-a deduction derived in such way from the premises as to compel belief, hard though it be for the imagination to follow it. But if in these and other cases the imagination fails, yet reason accepts this next to infinite divisibility of matter, and the conception of polarities and mutual relations of atoms so constituted, as the sole method of expounding the phenomena ever present around us." Pp. 95-97. ART. XII.-QUARTERLY BOOK-TABLE. Ir is of greatest concernment in the Church and Commonwealth to have a vigilant eye how books demean themselves as well as men, and thereafter to confine, imprison, and do sharpest justice on them as malefactors; for books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are.-MILTON. I.-Religion, Theology, and Biblical Literature. 6 (1.) "Sermons, by the REV. JOHN CAIRD, M. A., Minister of the Park Church, Glasgow; Author of Religion in Common Life.' A Sermon Preached before the Queen." (12mo., pp. 398.) New-York: Robert Carter & Brothers. It is a pleasing incident which rendered Mr. Caird a noticeable man, and, in a good degree, made a volume of sermons from his hand an acceptable present to the public. Queen Victoria was one of his audience once, and was so impressed with the excellence of his sermon as to wish its publication for a broader circulation. Our republican principles do not forbid our sympathizing with the interest excited by this royal notice, and experi |