2 vols. Dr. Stevens has already won a high meed of praise for his previous history of Methodism. No better man could have been found to write the history of this great and growing denomination. The task thus far has been executed with taste, judgment, and candor. The history will undoubtedly be a standard one in the Methodist church, and adds another to the growing list of noble American histories. The first volume is occupied with "The Planting of American Methodism," and the second with "The Planting and Training" of it. The work of Dr. Stevens, we observe, has been very favorably received abroad. JoHN FOSTER ON FUTURE PUNISHMENT is a thoughtful and impressive review of this well-known Letter by President Wayland, in the form of a letter addressed to Rev. Thomas H. Skinner, D.D. V. GIBBON AND COLENSO, by Dr. William Adams, is a striking and brilliant paper which none can read without interest. VI. CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION, by Dr. C. P. Wing, does justice to the subject. VII. THE COVENANTERS AND THE STUARTS is a racy historical article. VIII. WHEDON ON THE WILL, by Prof. H. B. Smith, is written with that acumen and masterly ability for which he is so distinguished. In addition, a large space is devoted to CRITICISMS ON BOOKS, THEOLOGICAL AND LITERARY INTELLIGENCE, and a COLLEGE RECORD for the year 1864. On the whole, we think this the best number of this Review which has yet been issued. Man and Nature; or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action. By GEORGE P. MARSH. New-York: Scribner. 1864. Our Minister to Turin is an eminent example of the facility with which a man of philosophical cul- Diary of Mrs. Kitty Trevylyan. A Story of ture and enlarged acquisitions can turn to various the Times of Whitefield and the Wesleys. With a departments of literary production, and in each Preface by the Author. New-York: M. W. Dodd. show himself to be a master. The bibliographi-1865. The author of this work has achieved a cal list of works prefixed to this volume indicates reputation as sudden and great as it is deserved. the most thorough preparation for the projected It is only a year since she first became known task, which is of a high order of importance, in this country through The Schönberg-Cotta comprising the amount of changes produced in Family, published first by M. W. Dodd, and the physical condition of our globe through afterwards by T. Nelson & Son. No book of its human agency; the dangers arising from waste kind was ever a greater success. Combining the of materials; the practicability of restoring ex- dramatic interest and excitement of a romance hausted regions; and the various projects now on with the solid worth of history, it has been read foot, on a large scale, in relation to these objects. and admired by a very large number. That was We need not say that the work, though hitherto followed some months since by The Early Dawn, unattempted with much comprehensiveness, is and now we have the third volume from this well done, and will be of the greatest aid and gifted pen. The other works by the same need to future inquirers. In this country the author, republished here, are her earlier productendency is to waste rather than thrift, since tions. We need only add, that the last work nature is here so prodigal, and our resources are strikingly resembles the Cotta-Family in its esas yet so imperfectly developed. Many of the sential features, and we doubt not will be as author's suggestions are worthy of the serious eagerly read in ten thousand households. study of our statesmen. The work, besides an introductory chapter on the general aspect of the subject, discusses the Transfer, Modification, and Extirpation of Vegetable and of Animal Species, (chapter II. ;) the Woods, (chapter III., one of the most valuable;) the Waters, (chapter IV. ;) the Sands, (chapter V.;) and Projected or Possible Geographical Changes by Man, (chapter VI,) such as the various larger canals, seas, Darien, the Dead Sea, etc., etc. Though devoted to physical researches, yet this volume bears constant testimony to the true position and power of man, as having a higher nature and capacities than the brutes, and thus sharply distinguished from them, and made to rule over this lower world, in subjection to his Maker.-Presb, and Theol. Review. American Presbyterian and Theological Review, Edited by Prof. HENRY B. SMITH and Rev. J. M. SHERWOOD. New-York: J. M. Sherwood. The January number of this quarterly presents a list of articles of unusual ability. I. CHRISTIAN MIRACLES AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE, by Rev. J. Q. Bittinger, is a sensible and timely discussion of a most important subject. II. DELIVERY IN PREACHING, by the venerable Dr. Skinner, is on the whole the richest and most suggestive essay on this vital theme that we remember to have read. III. ORIGIN OF HOMER'S PURER RELIGIOUS IDEAS, by Frederick Köster, is from the German. IV. SCIENCE. Roman Discovery.-Righetti, a wealthy commoner of this city, has lately purchased an old palace for an old song, being in one of the dirtiest parts of Rome, called the Biscione; it is close to the Piazza Campo dei Fiori, and not far from the Farnese Palace. Extensive repairs were indispensable, for the building was in a most rickety state, and, on setting people to work to dig for a foundation, they came upon a pavement composed of large slabs of that marble called "Porta Santa," which is a dull, veined marble, of a reddish hue, which comes from the Island of Iasus, in the Archipelago, and is properly called Marmor Jasseuse;" it is, however, better known by its modern name, which it derives from its forming the jambs of the jubilee door at St. Peter's. This pavement was found thirty feet below the present level of this part of Rome; and here, likewise, they came upon a massive wall, near which they found a piece of building somewhat resembling a Noah's Ark without the boat; the sides were of brick and the roof was formed of large blocks of travertine resting upon these walls, and uniting with bevelled edges at the top (“rigging" as they call it in Scotland). There were two gable ends, each formed of one large block of travertine; on several of the blocks are seen, large and well- the Great, it was natural that his image should cut, the letters F C s, which, as yet, the archæol- | be chosen to adorn the building he erected. As ogists here cannot explain. Great difficulty was a work of art, this statue is far superior to that encountered in consequence of the hole continu- found in the Forum Boarium, which is also gilt ally filling with water, and preventing the work bronze, and is now in the capitol. It has evigoing on; but a steam-engine was procured to dently been executed by artists in the time of the work the pumps, which are now plied night and empire, and stood in the Temple of Hercules in day. On opening the "ark," it was found to the Forum. The beautiful marble statue of Hercontain a magnificent gilt bronze statue of a cules bearing Telephus, which adorns the "Pio youthful Hercules, fourteen feet high, but lying Clementino" in the Vatican, was found in the on his back, or, as the Romans graphically de- Campo dei Fiori and placed where it now stands scribe it, "panza per aria.” by Julius the Second. It should be remembered that the noblest fragment of antiquity existing was presented by that same pontiff to the Vatican; it is a portion of a Hercules, and if I am not mistaken, I have seen a drawing by Flaxman, in which he restores it from an ancient gem representing Hercules and Hebe. This fragment was also found in the Campo dei Fiori (Pompey's Theatre); and is known as the Torso of the Belvidere.-Correspondence of the Athenaum. In art, this statue equals the finest that ever Greece produced, and the careful manner in which it has been hidden and the means taken to protect it, argue that its value was known and appreciated. I suspect it must have been hidden in the fourth century to prevent its being carried off to Byzantium by the son of Constantine, who made off with everything he could lay his hands on in the shape of works of art, to enrich and adorn the city which thenceforward was to bear their imperial name. It is interesting to know that the coins found in and about the statue were those of Domitian, Decius, and Maximinius, commonly styled the Herculean. There were likewise coins of the lower empire. Over the gilding, which is very thick and bright (and the patina of which is still perfect), is a rough calcareous incrustation, which must be carefully removed before the beauty of the statue can be thoroughly enjoyed. It was found imbedded in marble chips, such as form the sweepings of a sculptor's studio, and also wedged in by masses of architectural fragments. Inside the figure was found a very pretty little female head sculptured in Parian marble. The back hair is gathered up in a net, much in the style as worn by ladies in the present day, and which fashion prevailed from the time of Heliogabalus down to Constantine, as we see by referring to other statues and busts. The period of art to which this little bust belongs is that of Constantine, and therefore inferior. Other relics may yet be found in the statue, which is far from empty. On the first indications of this discovery, much speculation arose as to whether it were equestrian or not, and whether it might not prove to be a portrait statue of Pompey the Great, since the place where they are excavating is on the site of Pompey's Theatre, which was the first ever made of stone in Rome: and that its size was considerable is known from the fact that it accommodated twenty thousand spectators. These speculations as to what it is are now pretty well at rest, as the statue speaks for itself; at the same time, as there is a deal of that incrustation above mentioned adhering to the features, there are some who insist that it is a portrait of Domitian represented as Hercules. It has been raised to within ten feet of the surface, and men are busy exploring, in the hope of finding one of the feet, which is missing. The club has come up in three pieces, and the lion's skin, which has hung over the shoulder (similar to that of the Theban Hercules in the Vatican), and which has evidently been cast separately, is especially interesting to us moderns, as showing the mode in which the ancients executed their work of casting. Hercules being the tutelary deity of Pompey The Source of the Nile-Explorations of Speke, Burton, and Livingstone.-On November 14th the Royal Geographical Society recommenced its meetings in London for the season, Sir Roderick Murchison presiding. Captain Burton read a paper "On the Present State of Knowledge Respecting the Source of the Nile," in which he called in question many of the statements and inferences that had been made by Captain Speke. He denied, in the first instance, the existence of so large a lake as the Victoria Nyanza where Captain Speke had described it to be, and consequently he disputed that the Nile took its source from that lake. He assigned several reasons for disbelieving that there was such a lake. He asserted that the level of the lake was not sufficiently high for the source of so large a river, and from the testimony of the Arabs, a road passed through what was said to be the centre of the lake. Another reason why he thought the Nyanza could not be the source of the Nile was that the periods of the alleged greatest elevation of the water did not correspond with the overflow of that river. The word Nyanza is applied by the African tribes to any body of water, Nyaza and Nyanza being indifferently used with the same signification. The Mountains of the Moon, which were laid down in some of Captain Speke's early maps, had, he said, really no existence, or at least there was no range of mountains of such a magnitude as had been described. The lunar mountains were represented to be of the form of a horseshoe, and to inclose the north end of the Lake Tanganeika, some of the mountains being said to be ten thousand feet high. He did not deny that there were some hills in that direction, but they were not continuous, and Captain Burton contended that from the north of that lake a river flows into other lakes to the northward, and finally into the Nile; the Lake Tangancika, situated much further to the northwest, being the source from which the chief waters of the Nile are derived. He denied, however, that that or any river took its source from a lake, the real sources of the Nile being the rivers that fed the lake from which the stream issues. Captain Burton said he was far from wishing to detract from the great merit which was due to Captain Speke as an intelligent and adventurous explorer, but he thought that it was desirable that further explorations should be made to settle the question of the sources of the Nile, which he considered had not yet been determined. He inclined to think that a lake situated to the northeast of the reputed Victoria Nyanza is the source of the White Nile, and the Assnara, which flows from it, was mistaken by Captain Speke for a tributary, when it is, in fact, the main stream. The Journal de l'Imprimerie mentions the death of M. Achille Lefèvre, the celebrated engraver, whose engravings of the chief pictures of Raphael and Correggio are everywhere held in great estimation.-The Reader. A New Way of Printing.-The description of a very rapid process for reproducing pencil drawings has been going the round of the Russian journals. The process will be particularly useful Dr. Livingstone confirmed some of Captain in campaigns, where it is often desirable to have Burton's views respecting Lake Tanganeika. He a number of copies of a hasty pencil sketch. said when travelling to the westward of that Some time ago M. Villani-Villanis remarked that lake he saw several rivers flowing toward it from if a sheet of paper on which a plan or any drawa high plateau upward of two thousand feet high. ing or writing has been executed with pencil be He agreed with Captain Burton as to the general moistened with acidulated water, and afterwards signification of the word Nyanza, and he said he inked, the pencil marks alone will take the ink, had intended to call the Lake Nyaza by that and the whole drawing may then be transferred name, but finding that the latter term had been to metal or stone. Captain Sytenko, of the Rusused, he did not wish to change it. The north sian Artillery, director of the Photographic Serof Lake Nyaza had not been explored, owing to vice of the Staff at St. Petersburg, has introduced the borders being in possession of hostile tribes; very ingenious modifications into this process, and but Dr. Livingstone considered it not improbable contrived a portable military press, which, as althat a river flowed from it into the more northern ready hinted, may be extremely useful in camlakes. He was of opinion that the Nile originat-paigns. It does not take more than ten minutes ed from several lakes in that part of Africa, and that it could not be traced to any one source. Mr. Galton defended the statements of Captain Speke, and contended that the objection to the Lake Nyanza being the source of the Nile, founded on its low level, was removed by the knowledge of the fact that the instrument with which the level was taken was very imperfect, and could not be depended on. Ꭺ Ꭱ Ꭲ . The Hyde Park sculptures for the national Prince Consort Memorial have been determined upon. Baron Marochetti is to execute the statue of the Prince; and the four principal groups, symbolizing the four quarters of the world, have been intrusted to the following sculptors: Europe, to Mr. P. Macdowell, R.A.; Asia, to Mr. J. H. Foley, R.A; Africa, to Mr. W. Theed; America, to Mr. J. Bell. Four lesser groups, emblematic of Agriculture, Commerce, Manufactures, and Mechanics, will be executed by Mr. W. C. Marshall, R.A., Mr. J. Thorneycroft, Mr. H. Weeks, R.A., and Mr. J. Lawrer. Mr. H. H. Armstead and Mr. J. Phillips will execute the bas-reliefs. We have received from Mr. Mitchell a proof impression of M. A. Graefle's half-length portrait of her Majesty, engraved by Mr. W. Holl. The Queen is seated by the side of a bust of his late Royal Highness the Prince Consort, placed at her left hand upon a table. The portrait represents her Majesty as she now appears in the privacy of her domestic life, and is dedicated to their Royal Highnesses the Princesses. Of the portraits of the Queen this is likely to be the most popular. Messrs. Colnaghi, Scott, & Co. have forwarded to us an engraver's proof of the full-length portrait of H. R. H. the Princess Beatrice, painted by Louchert, the court-painter of Berlin, and engraved by George Zobel-a very clever picture, most charmingly engraved, and sure to be a favorite Christmas and New Year's gift. They also send a three-quarter-length portrait of the late Duke of Newcastle, from Sir J. Watson Gordon's picture by the same engraver, to effect the transfer of the drawing upon a zinc plate or lithographic stone. Coleridge's Portrait in the National Portrait Gallery. This portrait of S. T. Coleridge, painted by the American artist Washington Allston, was considered by Wordsworth and other friends of the poet the most satisfactory likeness that ever was painted of him. An engraving was executed from this picture by Mr. Samuel Cousins a few years ago. The portrait was painted at Bristol, in 1814, for Mr. Joshua Wade, when Coleridge was in the forty-second year of his age. The artist's own testimony, given in a letter to Professor Henry Reed, of Philadelphia, is deserving of consideration. He says; "So far as I can judge my own production, the likeness is a true one: but it is Coleridge in repose; and, though not unstirred by the perpetual ground-swell of his ever-working intellect, and shadowing forth something of the deep philosopher, it is not Coleridge in his highest mood-the poetic state. When in that state, no face I ever saw was like to his; it seemed almost spirit made visible, without a shadow of the visible upon it. Could I have then fixed it on canvas! But it was beyond the reach of my art." Washington Allston died June 9th, 1843, and was buried by torchlight in the cemetery of Mount Auburn, Boston. Mr. Warren de la Rue, by dint of enlarging and photographing his original image of the moon, has produced an admirable picture of our satellite, three feet in diameter, which is interesting alike to art and science. Especially as an aid towards further examination of the moon's surface, is it valuable; for, by means of it, an astronomer can study not only the actual appearance, but can establish points for future comparison, using this great photograph as the test of changes which may yet occur in the moon. There is reason to believe that changes are taking place, and it is satisfactory that a means for verifying them should now be available. Pompeii in 1864.-A very elaborate topographical plan of Pompeii has been published this year by the Italian government. By its assistance, and that of a pocket compass, an explorer may, it is said, easily find his way through the now lengthy streets of the town, about one third of which has been already uncovered. The most recent discovery seems to have been made in the same house wherein the statuette of Silenus was lately found. A subterranean part was discovered, in which were a well, a bath, and a small altar with the remains of the fruit of the pine that had been burnt before the domestic Lares. Up to the time of this discovery no well had been found in Pompeii with water; but in this, which is about eighty feet deep, there is excellent drinkable water supplied by a limpid stream underneath. Costly Statues.-Among the treasures of the Farnese Palace at Naples, now in the British Museum, is an antique copy of the "Diadumenos" of Polycletus, the original of which was valued by Pliny at a sum equal to £20,000 of our money. VARIETIES. Nelson's Funeral.-As I was determined to exert my energies, I readily accompanied my friends on board Mr. W. Carr's ship, whence we saw Nelson's body carried in procession up the river. The ships with their lowered flags, the dark boats of the river fencibles, the magnificent barges of his Majesty and the city companies, and above all, the mournful notes of distant music, and the deep sound of the single minute-gun, the smoke of which floated heavily along the surface of the river, conspired to form a solemn, sober, and appropriate pomp, which I found awfully affecting. It did but increase my eagerness to witness the closing scene of this great pageant exhibited the next day at St. Paul's. Richard, who was our active and attentive squire, will probably have given you an account of our adventures on this occasion, and the order of procession you would see in the papers; but perhaps you might not particularly attend to a circumstance which struck me most forcibly the union of all ranks, from the heir-apparent to the common sailor, in doing honor to the departed hero. In fact, the royal band of brothers, with their stately figures, splendid uniforms, and sober majestic deportment, roused, even in me, a transient emotion of loyalty; but when the noble Highlanders and other regiments marched in who vanquished Bonaparte's Invincibles in Egypt, and, reversing their arms, stood hiding their faces with every mark of heartfelt sorrow, and especially when the victorious captains of Trafalgar showed their weather-beaten and undaunted front, following the bier in silent mournful state, and when, at length, the gallant tars appeared bearing in their hands the tattered and blood-stained colors of the "Victory"- and I saw one of the poor fellows wiping his eyes by stealth on the end of the flag he was holding up -I cannot express to you all the proud, heroic, patriotic feelings that took possession of my heart, and made tears a privilege and luxury.-Lucy Aikin. FOR MINISTERS AND PASTORS.-A GENERAL INDEX, A TOPICAL INDEX, and a TEXTUAL INDEX of THE NATIONAL PREACHER for thirty-eight years, has been carefully prepared and published at the office of THE ECLECTIC. THE GENERAL INDEX numbers, by their titles and authors, about 950 discourses, by nearly five hundred ministers of seven evangelical denominations, who have filled and adorned the American pulpit in the past forty years. THE TOPICAL INDEX is a full alphabetical reference to all the subjects and doctrines discussed in the 950 discourses in the thirty-eight years or volumes of this able and valuable series. It is a theological library in itself, by hundreds of authors. THE TEXTUAL INDEX refers in the order of the books of the Bible to all passages used in the series as heads of discourses. This three-fold INDEX for convenient reference has a great value to the minister and preacher, on account of the wide range of themes for the pulpit, from so many minds of high order among American divines. This three-fold INDEX is neatly printed in pamphlet form of nearly fifty pages, to be sent by mail, prepaid, to any address, on receipt of forty cents. Complete sets of thirty-eight years, or thirty-eight volumes, neatly bound, may be had at the office of THE ECLECTIC, and sent to order to any part of the country. This mode is adopted to answer many letters of inquiry on the subject. The price is 90 cents per year or volume. Sets sent by express to any part of the country, free of additional cost. Death of William Curtis Noyes.-This eminent Christian gentleman and member of the legal profession, and ornament of the New-York bar, died suddenly on Christmas morning, aged fiftynine years. Seldom has a death occurred in this community which has occasioned deeper or more marked regret or stronger expressions of respect to his character and his memory. He was in usual health almost up to the day of his death. He was present at the anniversary of the NewEngland Society and elected its president. That society adopted the following resolutions: "Whereas, An all-wise and inscrutable Providence has suddenly taken from us our esteemed and recently-elected president, and has by this dispensation made an irreparable void in our ranks; therefore, "Resolved, That in the death of William Curtis Noyes this society has been deprived of one whose philanthropy knew no bounds; whose earnest zeal in the right was unsurpassed; whose purity and nobleness of character was without taint; whose memory we profoundly cherish; and whose name will ever add lustre and renown to the New-England Society. "Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with his afflicted family in this their great bereavement ; and we mingle our tears with theirs, when we think of the magnitude of the loss which they and we have sustained, and which words are inadequate to express. "Resolved, That this society will attend his funeral in a body." At a meeting of the bar of New-York, subsequent to the funeral, eloquent and impressive speeches were made as a tribute to his worth. Among a large circle of bereaved friends is his sister, Mrs. H. DWIGHT WILLIAMS, whose husband is Imperial Commissioner in China. Her book, A Year in China, admirably written, in which Mr. Noyes took a deep brotherly interest, has recently been published in this city by Hurd & Houghton. Mr. Noyes devised his very extensive library to Hamilton College, in this State. something we have to say upon poetical art-because they may give to it life and freshness. The accident of contemporaneous publication has here brought together two books, very characteristic of modern art, and we want to show how they are characteristic. [THE National Review is a new organ of English sentiment. It represents the extreme "lib- Neither English poetry nor English eral" school, and is conducted with marked abil- criticism have ever recovered the erupity. We desire simply to advise our readers of tion which they both made at the beginthe fact, that they may know the stand-point of its writers. Its theological biases sometimes af-ning of this century into the fashionable fect its opinions in the field of literature, as in world. The poems of Lord Byron were some of its criticisms on Milton in the very able received with an avidity that resembles and interesting essay which we here present to our present avidity for sensation novels, our readers.-ED. ECLECTIC.] and were read by a class which at present reads little but such novels. Old men who remember those days may be heard to say, "We hear nothing of poetry, nowadays; it seems quite down." And "down" it certainly is, if for poetry it be a descent to be no longer the favorite excitement of the more frivolous part of the "upper" world. That stimulating poetry is now little read. A stray schoolboy may still be detected in a wild admiration for the Giaour or the Corsair, WE Couple these two books together, not because of their likeness, for they are as dissimilar as books can be, nor on account of the eminence of their authors, for in general two great authors are too much for one essay, but because they are the best possible illustration of Enoch Arden, etc. By ALFRED TENNYSON, D.C.L., Poet Laureate. Dramatis Persone. By ROBERT BROWNING. 18 |