single clause from its connection, -from all which had gone before, or which came immediately after, you give a semblance of plausibility to your words: you leave on the minds of your readers an impression which is utterly without foundation. Could my pamphlet go into every house into which yours shall come, could I be sure, that every mind into which you may instil this deadly poison, would also be reached by the antidote which my review provided, I should have little occasion to fear the result. But as the case now stands, I confess that in this matter you have me at a disadvantage. You can spread the bane faster and wider than I can counteract its evil. You have chosen weapons which I cannot wield. As a certain stripling had occasion to say, of old: "I have not proved them!"

In the light of these developments, no doubt the members of the Essex South Association will be prepared to profit by the Christian counsel with which you solemnly draw your pamphlet to a close. You would have them avoid all "unseemly epithets," employing, in any future notice of your revised Testament, no language more "unseemly" than the following, all of which is borrowed from your own pamphlet, from the October number of the "Bible Union Quarterly," and from the article in the Examiner and Chronicle entitled, DR. CONANT ON REV. MR. JEWETT:- "Tyrannical and dishonorable" (applied to the Congregational Review;) "maligned, misrepresented and ridiculed" (the Am. Bible Union, by the Congregational Review;) "written from a purely sectarian stand-point, and with all the virulence and bitter partisanship that might be expected in an article written from such a point of view" (my critique;) "a captious and illiberal appeal to popular prejudice and sectarian bigotry; ""we have never read a professed critique of any literary work characterized by a more uncandid temper;" "It applies to the revised Testament the most vituperative epithets; "it attributes to the revisers the worst of motives;" "it was prepared for the press in the violence of

passion; ""a series of flippant and shallow criticisms, which only excite the disgust of a true scholar;" "when such work as this is to be done, it is left to one of the lesser fry, such as the Rev. George B. Jewett; " " in the style of an English school-boy, hardly out of his accidence;" "a respectable Latinist, in a small way;" "it was unfortunate for him that he undertook to criticize a work requiring years of philological and exegetical training, in a field to which he is an utter stranger, and where he can only make himself ridiculous in the eyes of scholars."

These, sir, are the choice words and phrases with which you would have all future critics approach the "examination" of your work. These are the epithets and select forms of criticism by which is indicated your own understanding of what constitutes that " Christian spirit" of "meekness and love" which you so piously commend to the "Essex South Association of Massachusetts, comprising many of the most distinguished pastors of churches in that State." You need have no fear lest the standard of excellence in Christian "meekness and love" which you thus recommend and exemplify, should appear too high for the aspirations of these " distinguished pastors." Oh no, sir! One must go out of Massachusetts to find a "grave body of divines" who can descend to the "bandying of such terms of vituperation and opprobrium" as these which are employed by yourself and your co-laborer. When the Essex South Association shall have sunk so low as to be tempted to employ weapons of defence similar to these which seem to afford you such true satisfaction, when the members of that honorable body shall become so lost to reason and be so carried away by "violence of passion," that the sayings above-quoted shall be the only ones in which their feelings can find appropriate expression, then, despairing of help within their own circle, they will turn with buoyant heart, to the distinguished men who represent the American Bible Union, for a pen adequate to the task of writing their defence!

Whether the individual whom you style "George P. Jewett" (p. 10,) thus incorrectly announcing my name, and withholding from me the most common title of civility, -doing this, it may be presumed, either " in the rush and haste with which" your "pamphlet was prepared for the public," or because you wrote "too much under the influence of passion" to care whether you clothed your thoughts in the dress of ordinary complaisance, whether in my review, I used language which will bear favorable comparison, on the score of Christian courtesy, with your own, I cheerfully leave to the impartial judgment of an intelligent public.

I remain, Sir,

Yours with respect,

GEO. B. JEWETT.

SALEM, MASS., Dec. 1868.

[A Supplement to this article will appear in the next number of

this Review.]

LITERARY NOTICES.

Constance Aylmer, a Story of the Seventeenth Century. By H. F. P. New York: Charles Scribner & Co. Boston: Graves and Young. 1869. pp. 347.

Some one has here done for the early life of our colonies, Dutch and Puritan, and for the better type of American Quakerism as well, what the author of the "Schönberg-Cotta Family" did for the Luther epoch in Germany. If it is as the newspapers say-a new writer, our literature may be entitled to further enrichment besides this bright and pleasing addition to its treasures. We suspect it is not, altogether-the characteristic faults of what are called "young writers," crudity, diffuseness, repetition, extravagance, and dalliance with pet embellishments of style,-being entirely lacking. The book is a bit of faithful and happy pre-Raphaelite realism, as much so as one of the best pictures of Millais, and tells its story-a sweet and rich one-with uttermost simplicity and purity of thought and diction. The 17th century at New Amsterdam, Gravesend, Breuklyn, and Eastward, is reproduced with that sort of naturalness and healthy treatment which marks the author of "John Halifax," varied with threads of Indian story and character, and a glimpse of Cromwellian society besides. It is better worth the name "Both Sides the Sea" than the English tale, and is truer to the innermost core and truth of Puritanism. A young and beautiful Puritan orphan, sent to America to find a home with a Quaker aunt of rare goodness and loveliness of character, with a Cavalier adventurer, a proud young Virginian, a substantial Quaker politician, and, at the last, a Puritan Lord of Cromwell's court, for lovers, is the central figure of the picture; but with easy limning, and apparently effortless skill of characterization, a varied group are gathered about her, Dutch colonists, burgomasters, councillors, and young people, English quality, of the Independent persuasion and the contrary, with a background of freebooters and red men, and a glimpse of Cromwell himself and John Milton. Without being in the least sensational, the tale is full of incident, befitting those primitive times, and avoiding every shade of sentimentalism, it is colored and made winning with healthy and noble feeling. A thoroughly fresh and sweet book, which will beguile many, we hope, by the loveliness and simple picturesqueness of the characters, and the charming naturalness of the narrative, into sympathy with what is heartily pure and true, and a deeper interest in the genuine and grand souls whose lives lie underneath what we live to-day. Mr. Scribner has seldom made a better use of his busy types than in giving to the new year this wholesome specimen of American literature. Some of the "subjective" passages, -to borrow a word out of philosophy, the delicate and fine tracery of womanly consciousness, make us suspect a gentler and more expert hand than that of a man.

The Student's Scripture History; the New Testament, with Introduction connecting the History of the Old and New Testaments. By WILLIAM SMITH, LL. D. Harpers.

Dr. William Smith, the distinguished classical professor in two of the chief Congregational Colleges of England, and now Classical Examiner in London University, is an example of the unwonted union of ability for the profoundest authorship on subjects tasking advanced scholarship, and for the instruction of youthful scholars. The portable, compact, comprehensive Students' Histories he has given to Great Britain meet most happily the wants of those who have not gone far in the world of learning, and wish to go forward thoroughly and with the best results. Those on which he has himself done most strike us as the very best of the series. For the Scripture Histories he had peculiar qualifications and command of most valuable material in having been editor of the great Dictionary of the Bible.

One special excellence of this New Testament History is in the peculiar nature of the Introduction. There is a dark border land lying between Old Testament and New Testament times. Most educated Christians know little or nothing of it. It embraces a great transition period. Dr. Smith could not properly attach his account of this to the Old Testament History. It does not require a volume by itself, nor would such a volume be sought. But it forms the appropriate and instructive opening of the New Testament story. Another special excellence is the skill with which controverted points are handled. Some of our brethren in Great Britain object to Dr. Smith's Bible Dictionary that it admits too much unsettling criticism. Hence Dr. W. L. Alexander's new and noble enlarged edition of Kitto's Cyclopædia. But this fault is entirely avoided in the New Testament History. Points which criticism has attacked, but not unsettled, are simply given as established. All that learning has done to elucidate and freshen the facts is brought under requisition. The Notes and Illustrations, and small print discussions of books, sects, forms of worship, chro