popular manner, rather than profoundly or exhaustively. Yet the views maintained are generally just, and the discussions able. Had they been intended for the learned chiefly, we should have expected more extended research, and the treatment of many points which are naturally excluded from sermons for popular audiences. The Sabbath here defended is essentially the Sabbath of the evangelical churches of Great Britain and the United States, in distinction from the holiday of continental Europe.

A sketch of the Sabbath Reform, effected under the auspices of the Committee during the five years since its organization, appropriately introduces the volume.

CHURCH HISTORY.

STANLEY'S LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF THE EASTERN CHURCH.*--Dr. Stanley is the well-known author of the Life of Dr. Arnold, "Sinai and Palestine," and other publications of high merit. He is one of the leading members of the so-called Broad Church Party, in the Anglican Church. In the work before us, he presents himself in his new character of Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Oxford. Previously, however, by his Lectures on the Apostolic Church, he had shown his superior attainments in this department of knowledge.

The present volume consists of three inaugural lectures introductory to the study of Ecclesiastical History, together with twelve lectures on the Eastern Church, besides a Chronological Table and an Index.

The

The American reprint (by Scribner) is prefaced by the author's graceful commendation of his work, "Christendom of the East, to the furthermost outposts of Christendom in the West." typography of the American edition is in the highest degree creditable to the publishers. We recollect no American book which is more grateful to the eye than this. Would that all American publishers might do equal justice to standard English works which pass through their hands!

As to the contents of the volume, the reader must not expect a

* Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church, with an Introduction on the Study of Ecclesiastical History. By ARTHUR Penrhyn Stanley, D. D., &c., &c. From the second London edition. New York: Charles Scribner. 1862. (For sale by Judd & Clark. Price $2.25.)

full and consecutive history of that branch of the church of which it treats. As the title imports, it is Lectures upon History, in which there is no attempt at a full narrative, and free scope is given for philosophical remark. Not less than four of the lectures are taken up with a detailed description of the Council of Nice, while two additional lectures, the one upon the Emperor Constantine, and the other upon Athanasius, bear closely upon the same theme. The arrangement of topics throughout is clear; the style is both perspicuous and lively; the portraits of eminent persons, as Athanasius and Arius, are graphically sketched; and the discussions are founded on careful original researches. From the examination we have been able to give the volume, we have been led to think that the principal defect is the lack of a sharp and full definition of the doctrinal points brought up in the Eastern controversies. If it did not fall within the author's plan to enter upon such an exposition before the audience which listened to these lectures, he might still have supplied this need by means of one or two elaborate notes.

The portion of the work which contains for the historical scholar the most information which is positively new, is the last four lectures relating to the history and present condition of the Russian Church. The author everywhere displays a discernment of the characteristic peculiarities of the speculative East and the practical West, and a willingness to appreciate the excellencies of each.

THE FOURTH VOLUME OF GIESELER'S CHURCH HISTORY.*Only about one-fifth of this volume has appeared before in an English translation. This portion has been revised by the American editor, and the remainder of the volume newly rendered from the German. It comprises the period from 1517 to 1648, or from the Reformation to the peace of Westphalia, with the exception of the sections which relate especially to the Roman Catholic Church. These are to follow in a subsequent volume.

We have had repeated occasion to speak of the merits of this great work; of its singular impartiality, of its clearness of statement, and especially of the copious, pertinent, and accurate cita

A Text-Book of Church History. By Dr. JOHN C. L. GIESELER. Transla ted and edited by Henry B. Smith, Professor in the Union Theological Seminary, N Y. Vol. IV. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1862,

tions from original documents. These citations are of the highest value to the student who has the opportunity of access to the original works from which they have been selected with such consummate skill and faithfulness. To one who is obliged to study at a distance from libraries, they are quite indispensable to the exercise of an independent judgment. A thorough reading, in the original, of the part of the work presented in this volume, has left us more than ever impressed with the excellencies of this author, to whom the students of Church History, in our day, owe a large debt of thankfulness. At the point where this volume begins, we are obliged to part company with Neander and other trusty guides, so that the services of Gieseler are all the more appreciated. He writes here with more warmth of feeling than on some other periods in the progress of his work. Everywhere he manifests a strong moral sense, in particular where he has occasion to speak of the practical corruptions of Christianity; and the heroic qualities of Luther he brings out with sympathy and enthusiasm. In the History of Doctrine, if Gieseler is not so sharply discriminating as some other writers, he is not behind Neander in this quality, and we may be always sure of the sufficiency of his learning and of his entire fairness and freedom from prejudice. Moreover, he gives us in his notes the means of confirming or refuting the opinions uttered in the text.

PHILOLOGY.

MULLER'S LECTURES ON THE SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE.*—The author of these lectures is a German scholar naturalized in England. He came to his adopted country at the age of twenty-two, and has resided there for sixteen years, most of the time at Oxford, where he has held a Professorship of Comparative Philology. He has been chiefly engaged in bringing out an edition of the RigVeda, with the voluminous commentary of Sayana, published at the expense of the East India Company. The first volume, a huge

* Lectures on the Science of Language, delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, in April, May, and June, 1861. By MAX MULLER, M. A., Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford: Corresponding Member of the Imperial Institute of France. From the second London edition, revised. New York: Charles Scribner, 124 Grand Street. 1862. 12mo. pp. 416. (For sale by Judd & Clark. Price $1.30.)

quarto, appeared in 1849, followed by a second and third, equally bulky, in 1854 and 1856, which bring the great work about half the way toward completion. When the remaining half will be accomplished, it would be hazardous to predict. That the most important text of Indian literature should be accessible only in a form too cumbrous to handle, and too expensive for any but the rich to purchase, has been a serious annoyance to Sanskrit scholars; but the complaint has been greater that even in this form they should have to wait a generation for it. At length, however, the deficiency is to be supplied: a cheap edition, containing only the text of the Rig- Veda, printed in the Roman character, has been commenced at Berlin, and will soon be completed. But if Müller's edition has made tardy progress, its editor cannot be charged with idleness. He has shown his activity and industry by a series of important philological productions; such as his Letter on the Turanian Languages, printed in the third volume of Bunsen's Hippolytus; his Languages of the Seat of War (the Turco-Russian war); his History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature; and his present Lectures on the Science of Language. All these works, even the latest, have appeared in more than one edition. They all show not only a wide extent of philological attainment, but remarkable powers of independent thought, a great abundance of original and striking views, and a peculiar faculty of clear and interesting exposition. It may be said of all, even these popular lectures, that they have contributed to the progress of scientific philology.

The work before us is "dedicated to the members of the University of Oxford, both resident and non-resident, to whom I am indebted for numerous proofs of sympathy and kindness during the last twelve years, in grateful acknowledgment of their generous support on the 7th of December, 1860." The allusion here is one which some readers probably will be at a loss to understand. The Boden Professorship of Sanskrit at Oxford was vacated in 1860 by the decease of Horace Hayman Wilson, who had long been regarded as the Coryphæus of English Orientalists. His last production was an article, published after his death, in the Edinburgh Review for October, 1860, on Müller's History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature. That Müller was the fittest man to succeed him in the Professorship of Sanskrit, was the conviction of those best qualified to judge, both in England and in other

countries. The general expectation had for some time been directed to him as Wilson's successor. But, singularly enough, the publication of the famous "Essays and Reviews," which just then appeared, and produced, as all men know, a great ferment in the public mind, excited a prejudice against Professor Müller. It is true that he was in no way identified either with the authors or the opinions of that unfortunate work. But there were many who reasoned thus: "The dangerous tendencies of the Essays and Reviews come from Germany; therefore what comes from Germany is dangerous; therefore Müller is a dangerous man to be Professor of Sanskrit." With this feeling may have been mixed perhaps a certain Bull-ish dislike for foreigners, and an unwillingness to acknowledge the inferiority of native scholarship in any department. The result, whether caused by a blind and unreasoning dread of German theology, or due in part to the narrowness of national prejudice, is far from creditable to the English character. In the election, which was open to all Masters of Arts of the University, some fifteen hundred votes were cast, and of these more than eight hundred were given to another gentleman. The successful candidate has long been known as a respectable Sanskrit scholar; but no true friend of his could desire to have him brought into comparison with Professor Müller.

The author of these lectures regards the Science of Language (a name which he prefers to comparative philology, linguistics, and other designations) as belonging to the physical sciences. He shows at some length that it cannot be regarded as a historical science. Though the changes of language are closely connected with historical events, and are products of human agency, yet they are made without conscious effort or definite intention, coming to pass, as it were, of themselves, and so resemble physical, rather than historical, phenomena. These changes are described as of two kinds: 1. Phonetic Decay, the gradual but incessant corruption of spoken sounds, modifying, weakening, and breaking down the existing words of a language; and-2. Dialectical Regeneration, the equally unceasing production of new words and forms of words, which to a greater or less extent must go on in every spoken idiom, even when the language of literature is stationary. Like other physical sciences, that of language has its three stages, of observation, classification, and theory; though these stages are by no means absolutely successive, but have been variously inter