in this respect. It is to be regretted that along with the signal merits of Froude's work, there are not profounder and broader religious views underlying it.

GAYARRE'S PHILIP II. OF SPAIN.*-This is not a regular narrative of the events of Philip's reign, "but in a certain way a philosophical retrospect of what was most memorable in Spain during that period, as it was shaped by the controlling mind at the head of affairs." It is "an historical essay in its exhibition of results, while it really conveys to the reader the most noticeable facts upon which the various conclusions are established." It begins with a description of Philip's death from an agonizing and loathsome disease. The leading events of his reign are introduced in the course of the book, but the king is himself always the central figure. This volume is obviously founded on much historical study. It is in a high degree entertaining. The vigorous, imaginative style of the author not unfrequently runs into an excess of strength. Thus, of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and of Philip's responsibility for it, we read:-"To him belongs the original idea, and he cannot justly be deprived of a copyright so authentically, and in due form registered in the records, and under the great seal of hell." (p. 41). "What of Scotland? * Were not adultery

and murder seated on her throne whilst round it the weird sisters, with their choppy fingers on their lips, led their hideous dance." (p. 86). This is certainly strong writing. The historical statements are not uniformly sustained by evidence. What proof is there that Queen Elizabeth had "paramours?" (p. 7). Notwithstanding these blemishes, Mr. Gayarré has given us a lively and instructive book, and if he occasionally soars too high, he never plods.

THE JESUITS IN NORTH AMERICA IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.-Mr. Parkman's new volume-the second of the seriesis not only a highly interesting narrative, but it is likewise a substantial contribution to our knowledge both of the Indian tribes,

*Philip II. of Spain. By CHARLES GAYARRE, Author of the History of Louisiana, &c. With an Introductory Letter by George Bancroft. New York: W. J. Widdleton. 1865.

The Jesuits in North America in the Sixteenth Century. By FRANCIS PARKMAN, Author of "Pioneers of France in the New World." Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1867.

and of the self-devoted missionaries of the Roman Catholic Church, who labored for their conversion. The full contemporaneous reports of the Jesuit Fathers are the principal authority; but besides his diligent study of these invaluable documents, Mr. Parkman has extended his researches wherever there was light to be obtained upon his subject. He also possesses the advantage of a personal acquaintance with Indian life and Indian customs, as they exist at present among the remnants of the aboriginal inhabitants of America. To these most important qualifications for his task, he joins a simple, forcible, pleasing style of composition, and uncommon skill in the grouping of the incidents which he has to relate. The introductory chapter treats of the two great divisions of savage tribes, the Algonquins and the Iroquois, which were spread over "the vast tract of wilderness from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, and from the Carolinas to Hudson's Bay." Their mode of life, their homes, fortifications, method of treating diseases, their political and social organization, are concisely described. In regard to their religion, as on various other points, many popular notions respecting them are shown to be erroneous. "The primitive Indian," writes Mr. Parkman, "was as savage in his religion as in his life. He was divided between fetish worship and that next degree of religious development which consists in the worship of deities embodied in the human form. His conception of their attributes was such as might have been expected. His gods were no whit better than himself. Even when he borrows from Christianity the idea of a Supreme and Universal Spirit, his tendency is to reduce him to a local habitation and a bodily shape; and this tendency disappears only in tribes that have been long in contact with civilized white men. The primitive Indian, yielding his untutored homage to one All-pervading and Omnipotent Spirit, is a dream of poets, rhetoricians, and sentimentalists."

Mr. Parkman begins his narrative with a description of Quebec as it was in 1634, and of Father Le Jeune, and the incipient mission which the order of Jesus had planted on this spot, in the midst of the wilderness. This chapter is followed by an account of the origin and character of the Jesuit Society, together with a more particular account of Le Jeune, his education, his consecration to the missionary service, and the hardships which he suffered in the winter among the Indian hunters whom he joined for the purpose of acquiring their language, and laboring for their conversion. The establishment of the Huron mission, and the

adventures of the heroic Briebeuf and his companions, the settlement of a colony at Montreal, the wars between the Hurons and their implacable foes, the Iroquois, by whom they were at length exterminated, the wonderful sufferings, and still more wonderful fortitude of Isaac Jogues, Briebeuf, and other Jesuit martyrs, are among the leading topics of the subsequent chapters. The volume abounds in suggestive facts, which are not less adapted to interest the philosophical student of human nature and history than to entertain the general reader. In perusing it, we have seldom met with a remark to which we have been inclined to take exception. After an excellent description (pp. 319, 320) of the effects of religious effort among the Indians, the author says: "As for the religion which the Jesuits taught them, however Protestants may carp at it, it was the only form of Christianity likely to take root in their crude and barbarous nature." But were not the Protestant missions among the savages of North America, on the whole, as successful as those of the Jesuits? The remark, quoted above, is not sustained by evidence.

LIFE OF CARL RITTER.*-Mr. Gage's well known translations of Ritter's "Lectures on Comparative Geography," and his "Geographical Studies" have already associated him in the minds of American scholars with the name of the great philosopher and geographer, whose biography he gives to the world in the present volume. His position as a friend and pupil of Ritter, and his residence in Germany have given him unusual facilities for collecting the materials for his work, which has evidently been a labor of appreciative love. We have a full and interesting account of the early life of Ritter-his training in the institution at Schnepfenthal under the generous and enthusiastic Salzmann, who, however, failed to recognize the possibilities of his pupil—his experiences as an "educator" in the Hollweg family at Frankfort, whose two sons were under his exclusive direction for many years, and whose future career amply repaid his faithful and judicious care—and the very gradual, almost unconscious, development of his mind in the direction of the science of Physical Geography, to which his subsequent life was devoted, a science which owes its creation, in

The Life of Carl Ritter, late Professor of Geography in the University of Berlin. By W. L. GAGE, Editor of Ritter's Sinaitic Peninsula and Palestine, and Translator of his Lectures on Comparative Geography. New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1867. 12mo. pp. 242.

deed, to his minute and exhaustive investigation of details, and his broad and philosophical generalizations. We could wish that the latter half of his long life of eighty years had been less hastily passed over-the period in which, as devoted to his special work as professor and author, he exercised so great an influence on the German mind, and did so much to win the admiring gratitude of all lovers of true science. During these years he unfolded in his lectures at the University of Berlin, and in his published works his method of treating Geographical studies, elevating what had before been a mere mass of dry, uninteresting details into a science, whose unity and comprehensiveness embraced not only all the physical facts of the globe on which we live, but showed their subordination to the moral and spiritual development of man, and their true significance as an unfolding of the Divine thought. He thus gave not only form and beauty to the class of geographical facts, but by his central idea of the working of a living God in all the conditions of historical development he spiritualized and ennobled the whole physical structure of the universe. His voluminous writings-too voluminous and full of details to attract the ordinary student even of physical science-remain a lasting monument to his thoroughness of investigation and his scientific method, but he exerted, perhaps, a greater influence on the world by the direct impression of his ideas and intellectual character on the large number of young men who filled his lecture room for successive years. His influence as a Christian scholar has impressed itself indelibly on the German mind and, indeed, upon the whole world of scholars; and we rejoice in everything which, like the present volume, helps us to a clearer idea of his inner life, and his life work.

PUBLICATIONS OF THE NARRAGANSETT CLUB. VOL. II.*—The Narragansett Club is a society for the publishing of books and documents pertaining to the history of Rhode Island. In respect to spelling and typography, their publications are a fac simile of the quaint originals. The second volume of the series is chiefly made up of "Master John Cotton's answer to Master Roger Williams." This old tract closes the controversy between Cotton and Williams, and is highly important for the light which it throws on the cause of the banishment of Williams from Massachusetts. It is edited

* Publications of the Narragansett Club. (New Series.) Volume II. Providence, R. I. MDCCCLXVII.

by Rev. J. L. Diman, Professor of History in Brown University; and the value of it is greatly enhanced by his instructive preface, and by the judicious and learned notes which accompany the text. Professor Diman expresses the decided opinion that among the grounds of the exile of Williams, his doctrine respecting the legitimate province of the civil magistrate was entirely subordinate, and that “his rigid principle of separation was what made him suspected and disliked." This peculiarity, along with his denial of the validity of the king's patent, whereby the colony held its lands, and the zealous, not to say disorderly, method of asserting his notions on these topics, were the real causes of his banishment. His principle in regard to the restricted function of the State was then quite in the background, and was not brought forward prominently until a later day. Professor Diman's observations on this subject deserve the attention of all who are interested in New England history. They are founded on a careful examination of the sources of knowledge on the subject, by one who is evidently accustomed to weigh historical evidence in a dispassionate and discriminating spirit.

The present voluine contains, in addition to Cotton's pamphlet, a reprint of the "Queries of Highest Consideration," addressed by Roger Williams to Presbyterians and Independents in England, in relation to Church Polity and kindred matters. It is a curious and interesting monument of the author's character, as well as a summary of his tenets. The editor, Mr. R. A. Guild, the esteemed Librarian of Brown University, having ascertained that a copy of this old tract is in the British Museum, caused it to be transcribed, and now puts it forth with such explanatory remarks as render its contents and its design intelligible to readers of the present day. Mr. Guild deserves congratulation for the enterprise he has shown in this matter, as well as for the manner in which he has performed his task of editing this exhumed treatise.

BELLES LETTRES.

TEGNER'S FRITHIOF'S SAGA.*-Some eighteen years ago this strange and wild poem came to our notice, in an English translation printed at Stockholm. It was like the opening of a new

* Frithiof's Saga. From the Swedish of Esaias Tegner, Bishop of Wexiä. By the Rev. WILLIAM LEWREY BLACKLEY, M. A. First American Edition. Edited by Bayard Taylor. New York: Leypoldt & Holt.

1867.