praiseworthy manner of the author's defence, which we admire. Though confident in his strength, and amply sustained by his citations and evidence; though sturdy and unyielding in his positions-the writer conducts his defence with perfect courtesy and amiability. We commend all aggrieved authors to a careful perusal of Prof. Hosmer's reply to his critics.

Songs of the Soul, Gathered out of many Lands and Ages. By SAMUEL IRENEUS PRIME. 12° pp. 661. New York: Robert Carter and Brothers. 1880.

THE entire literature of the world does not present a richer field than the poetic breathings of religious souls. No one but the Christian can understand how the spirit, in joy or grief, in victory or defeat, in resignation or triumph, turns instinctively to express its moods in song. Yet, as these feelings are the deepest, loftiest and most tragic in human nature-as they arise from contemplation or experience of the sublimest laws of life—it is surely but natural that the soul should seek to express them, or find them expressed, in the most impassioned form of speech. Certain it is, that in all times the hymn-book, in some form or other, has been .inseparably interwoven with the sacred writings of every people. This is especially true among the followers of Christ, where it is safe to say that the poets have shed more light on the dark places, and revealed more of the mysteries, of the Bible than all the commentators have done. In no religion has the hymnology been so full and rich; in none has the service of song performed so important a part, both in public and private worship.

Among the innumerable collections of religious poems, Dr. Prime's Songs of the Soul has already taken high rank, and we are glad to welcome new edition, reduced both in size and price, and thus made more available for use. A reëxamination of its

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pages-long familiar to us - serves only to strengthen our admiration of the taste, skill and feeling with which the compilation has been made. The opening and closing selections are poems of rare power and beauty-the first place being given to Derzhavin's lofty and intense verses on God, while the last two poems are the ecstatic Celestial Country of Bernard of Clugny, and Mother Dear, Jerusalem.

In the leading divisions of the work, in choice of themes and of representative hymns, there is an equal display of purified religious taste and trained literary judgment. Nearly all ages, nations and sects are here represented, while nothing has a place which does not appeal to every aspiring soul-the world over. We have but to remember that Allah means God, to find a noble

Christian poem even in The Answer of Dscheladeddin, the Persian. What Christian poet, indeed, has given us any thing better than its closing lines

"Every inmost aspiration is God's angel undefiled;

And in every 'Ŏ my Father' slumbers deep a 'Here, my child! All moods are found here, too, except despair and rebellion. The hymns range in spirit from the agony of Timrod's A Mother's Wail to the tender resignation of Whittier's Angel of Patience and the complete submission of Sturm's God's Anvil.

Personal taste, and still more, personal spiritual experience, will have, of course, a strong voice in individual judgments of such a work. Yet we believe there is no collection which will be more widely acceptable; none which will produce less disappointment and more satisfaction than this one. Dr. Prime evidently had not our own taste constantly in view, or he would have found a better translation of That Great Day of Wrath and Terror than Neale's, which is very poor English poetry and a better rendering of Hildebert's Hymn than Benedict's; while we would have preferred Sir Walter Scott's or Gen. Dix's Dies Ira to that of Edward Slosson. Occasionally a poem, whose authorship is well known, as I am far frae my hame, is unsigned, while Derzhavin's name is not appended to the opening hymn.

This latter omission, indeed, may be an error in proofreading, of which there are so many as to be inexcusable. For Derzhavin appears in the list of authors, but referred to page 31 instead of page 3; while Sir John Bowring's name is signed to the hymn as translator, but is omitted from the list of translators. In this same list, Edward Caswall is not credited with the translation of Bernard's Jesu, dulcis memoria, nor Mrs. Charles with that of Peter Damiani's Ad perennis vitæ fontem, although their names appear, respectively, at the end of these poems. E. A. Washburne is allowed a final e in one place, but deprived of it in another. So valuable a book ought not to be thus marred.

FINANCE.

Letters from Europe. By HON. WILLIAM D. KELLEY, Philadelphia Porter and Coates. 1879.

Bi-Metallism. By HON. WILLIAM D. KELLEY. Reprint from Penn Monthly for December, 1879.

THE first of these pamphlets is a series of six letters to the Philadelphia Times while the author was on a vacation in Europe.

They are mainly devoted to the consideration of economic problems, especially the demonetization of silver.

The second pamphlet is an address read before the Bullion Club of New York, and treats exclusively of the silver question, as it is termed in this country. The author justly condemns the á priori method of reasoning upon economic problems generally, and this one in particular, and enters into a minute and interesting examination of the subject. He asserts that money is not a standard of value, in the strict sense of the word-which is true enough, since value is a relative term, and cannot, therefore, be measured like space or gravity. Money is a conventional standard of value; and since value may be defined as power in exchange with reference to all exchangeable commodities, it follows that the ideal standard should be something embodying the average proportion of all exchangeable commodities. This purely ideal conception of a standard of value being unattainable, the nearest practicable approach to it would be the nearest to perfection, and the nearest practicable approach to it is the selection and adoption of two or more of the least changeable commodities. Gold and silver are the two least changeable commodities and therefore furnish the best standard when used together and acting reciprocally on each other. If there were still another metal otherwise fitted for the purpose, then a triple standard would be even nearer perfection. Mr. Kelley's pamphlets are a useful contribution to the literature of the silver question, and will help to strengthen the convalescence of public opinion on this important subject.

2d Series: VOL. VI.-NO. I.

17

RECEIVED.

The Constitutional and Political History of the United States. By DR. H. VON HOLST. Translated from the German by JOHN J. LALOR and ALFRED B. MASON. 1750-1833. State Sovereignty and Slavery. 8° pp. 505. Chicago: Callaghan and Company. 1877.

Great Authors of all Ages. Being Selections from the prose Works of eminent Writers from the Time of Pericles to the present Day. With Indexes. By S. AUSTIN ALLIBONE. 8° pp. 1880. 555. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co.

Memoir of Henry Armitt Brown, Together with four historical Orations. Edited by J. M. HOPPIN. 12° pp. 395. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1880.

American College Fraternities; A descriptive Analysis of the Society System in the United States, together with a detailed Account of each Fraternity. By WM. RAIMONnd Baird. 12° PP. 212. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1879.

The Philosophy of Music. By WILLIAM POLE. 12° pp. 316. Boston Houghton, Osgood & Company. 1879.

The Poetical Works of Bayard Taylor. Household Edition. 12o pp. 341. Boston: Houghton, Osgood and Company. 1880.

Miscellanies. By JOHN DEAN CATON, LL. D. 8° pp. 360. Boston Houghton, Osgood and Company. 1880.

The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, To which are appended Works attributed to Chaucer. Edited by ARTHUR GILMAN, M. A. Riverside Edition. 3 Vols. 12° pp. 598; 691; 703. Boston: Houghton, Osgood and Company. 1880.

Camps in the Caribbees; The Adventures of a Naturalist in the Lesser Antilles. By FREDERICK A. Ober. 12° pp. 366. Boston: Lee and Shepard; New York: Charles F. Dillingham. 1880.

Four Months in a Sneak-Box. A Boat Voyage of 2000 Miles down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and along the Gulf of Mexico. By NATHANIEL H. BISHOP. 12° pp. 322. Boston: Lee and Shepard; New York: Charles T. Dillingham. 1879.

A New Latin Dictionary. Founded on the Translation of Freund's Latin-German Lexicon. Edited by E. A. ANDREWS, LL.D. Revised, enlarged, and in great part rewritten by CHARLTON T. LEWIS, Ph. D., and CHARLES SHORT, LL. D. 4° pp. 2019. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1879.

Art in America. A critical and historical Sketch. By S. G. W. BENJAMIN. Illustrated. 8° pp. 214. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1880.

Tyrol and the Skirt of the Alps. By GEORGE E. WARING, JR. Illustrated. 8° pp. 171. New York: Harper & Brothers.

1880.

The Ages Before Moses. A Series of Lectures on the Book of Genesis. By JOHN MONRO GIBSON, D. D. 12° pp. 258. New York: Anson D. F. Randolph & Company. 1879.

The Struggle for Law. By Dr. RUDOLPH VON IHEring. Translated from the fifth German Edition by JOHN J. LALOR. 12° pp. 130. Chicago: Callaghan and Company. 1879.

Progressive Japan, A Study of the political and social Needs of the Empire. By GENERAL LE GENDRE. 12° pp. 370. New York and Yokohama: C. Lévy; San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft & Company. 1878.

Roman Days. From the Swedish of VIKTOR RYDBERG. By ALFRED CORNING CLARK. With a Sketch of Rydberg by DR. H. A. W. LINDEHN. Authorized Translation. Illustrated. 12° pp. 332. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1879.

By

The Telephone, the Microphone and the Phonograph. COUNT DU MONCEL. 12° pp. 277. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1879.

English Men of Letters: Milton. By MARK PATTISON, B. D. 12° pp. 215. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1880.

English Men of Letters: Hawthorne. By HENRY JAMES, JR. 12o pp. 177. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1880.

Discovery and Conquests of the North-West, With the History of Chicago. Part II. 8° pp. 146. By RUFUS BLANCHARD. Wheaton, Ill.: R. Blanchard & Company.

The Second Coming of the Lord; Its Cause, Signs and Effects. By CHAUNCEY GILES. 12° pp. 264. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1879.

Notes on Railroad Accidents. By CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, JR. 12° pp. 280. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1879.

Selections from the Greek Lyric Poets; With an historical Introduction and explanatory Notes. By HENRY M. TYLER. 12° pp. 184. Boston: Ginn & Heath. 1879.

By

Studies in German Literature. an Introduction by GEORGE H. BOKER. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1879.

BAYARD TAYLOR. With 12° pp. 418. New York: