tended to take it in? With a knowing look he (himself both a fine philosophic and historical scholar), shook his head, affirming that the best of these compilations are only the opinions of their editors, and are no sufficient authority in thorough investigations. We begin to think our friend was right. Much as the work has pleased us in its former general features, we have here struck the pons asinorum, and find it a broken bridge. The life of Thomas Paine is written, leaving out just that which made him Thomas Paine, as much as his christian patriotism made George Washington the rightful owner of all which that name of honor and goodness covers.

It may be well enough, in a work like this, to let the members of a sect or a school tell its own story, if other guards are added to correct partial and unduly apologetic views. Thus, in the old "Encyclopædia Americana," we had the article "Jesuit" first by a member of that order, and then, by a Protestant writer, between which one could "square up the corners," as a bricklaying neighbor of ours is fond of saying. But here the corners are nowhere, and the whole thing leans worse than the campanile of Pisa. Paine was a coarse, licentious, drunken, swearing infidel; untrue to his friends, quarrelsome, and utterly unclean. He wrote the "Age of Reason" as well as the "Common Sense." What " common sense he had was neither moral or religious, but only political. His "age of reason never came. His name belongs to the catalogue of Cain and Judas, upon whom God may have mercy if he can; but whom men must only pity, not defend or excuse.

This article of a half dozen solid pages is full of perversions and suppressions. It is a piece of special pleading in a very bad cause. It brings in a verdict which the world will not accept, because it knows the judgment is not true. Thomas Paine cannot so be whitewashed into a decent patriot and philanthropist. We would not ask, in a summary like this, a detailed account of so lost a life. But we had a right to expect a just resumé of the case; and particularly this, which is the chief lesson of his career that no degree of intellectual power can save the memory of a thoroughly corrupted man from the deserved abhorrence of the ages which come after. What has our cyclopedist done? He glosses over the vulgar infidelity of Paine's writings as being no worse than the current free-thinking of the times (a slander on our fathers); he has a very broad cloak of obviously sympathetic charity to throw over a book which involved its publishers in America and in Britain in criminal prosecutions, on the sole charge of its blasphemies (of all of which this apology is profoundly ignorant); he says nothing about the sense of outraged virtue, in

both these countries, which rose up in righteous indignation against this man as a foe of goodness, when his full-grown vileness of mind and heart became visible but attempts to show that, instead of this, the opposition against him was a Federalist persecution of a Jeffersonian politician; he leaves out his personal dissipations, and domestic infidelities, as if he were a Rechab or a Joseph; and the deathbed scenes detailed by his physician, Dr. Manly, will never startle the wicked with a looking-for of judgment, so far as this oblivious record is concerned. In all of this there is a suppressio veri which, on purely historical as well as moral and Christian grounds, amounts to an aggravated uttering of falsehood.

We speak strongly, for the offence is grievous. This article is not an ephemeral newspaper or magazine affair, nor even a book-biography which one may buy or refuse to buy as he pleases. It is installed in the heart of a serial which is to stand as an authority for years to come; the volumes of which, its purchasers began to procure in good faith that (while it might not agree with many of their opinions) it should be at least historically just and reliable. Several of our periodicals have urged that this obnoxious article be removed from future editions of the volume in question. It is a perfectly right request. We should be glad if the purchasers of the work thus far would refuse to invest a mill in this volume of it, as some we know will do; and let the gap in the set suggest its own explanation, until it can be better filled than with this lucubration of "Mr. Joseph N. Morceau," author of a contemporaneous tract entitled "Testimonials to the merits of Thomas Paine," as an appendix to which this morceau would find a much more appropriate place.

The History of England from the Accession of James II. By LORD MACAULAY. Vol. V. Edited by his Sister, LADY TREVELYAN. With Additional Notes to Vols. I., II., III. and IV. A Sketch of Lord Macaulay's Life and Writings. By S. AUSTIN ALLIBONE. And a Complete Index to the Entire Work. Boston: Crosby, Nichols, Lee & Co. 1861. pp. 335.

THE bare printing of this full title-page would be enough to suggest to our readers the value of this volume-the last we are to have from the gifted author. We could bestow no higher praise than to say, that this volume is written with all the brilliancy, research, and power of its predecessors; while its Notes give additional value to them. The Sketch of his Life and Writings is a clear summary of

the evidences of his wonderful literary merit, his peerless memory, his genius as an essayist, an orator, a poet, and a most charming friend and conversationalist.

Minnie Carleton.

By MARY BELLE BARTLETT. For sale at the Store of the Mass. S. S. Society. 1861. pp. 245.

THIS is a charming little book for putting into the hands of a bright, thoughtful girl, who sometimes longs to learn how to be good and useful. It is written in a beautiful and feeling style, and seems to aim to show how a young person may live so as to constrain brothers, sisters, associates, one after another, to say there is a beautiful and attractive reality in religion.

NEW PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

The Confessions of Augustine. Edited, with an Introduction, by WILLIAM G. T. SHEDD. Andover: Warren F. Draper. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. pp. 417.

The Recreations of a Country Parson. First Series. Boston: Ticknor & Fields.

The Recreations of a Country.Parson. Second Series. Boston: Ticknor & Fields.

PAMPHLETS.

Scriptural Evidence of the Deity of Christ. By Rev. DAVID B. FORD, A. M. South Scituate, Mass. Reprinted from the Bibliotheca Sacra for July, 1860. Andover Warren F. Draper. Boston:

Gould & Lincoln. pp. 42.

The State and the Nation: Sacred to Christian Citizens. A Sermon preached in All Souls' Church, New York, April 21, 1861. By HENRY W. BELLOWS. New York: James Miller, Successor to C. S. Francis & Co. 522 Broadway. pp. 16.

Sermons on the Country's Crisis. Delivered in Mount Vernon, N. H., April 28, 1861. By C. E. LORD, Pastor of the Congregational Church. Milford Printed at Boutwell's Newspaper, Book and Job Office. pp. 20.

ARTICLE IX.

SHORT SERMONS.

"For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.” — Isaiah lx. 12.

THE text is given as a reason for the future splendid triumph of Messiah's kingdom, which the prophet is here painting.

The object of the text is the clear and emphatic announcement of the fact that the law of God applies to Nations.

National governments as well as individual persons must keep the moral law. In their national capacity and public acts they must adhere to the letter and spirit of the Decalogue, or the God who gave it, and who stands behind it to enforce it, will grind them to powder in the constantly rolling mill of his providence.

The destruction of nations will of course be different from the destruction of persons, according to their difference of constitution and duration. Persons have a future state of being for which this life is probationary and disciplinary. Hence, contrary to the arguments of Job's friends, they never receive punishment in this world. The greatest offenders may be prospered through life. They have more than heart can wish, and there are no bands in their death. Not so with nations. It is thought no case can be found in history where a nation has prospered or long survived while setting the law of God at defiSuch is the evidence abundantly furnished in the familiar volume entitled "God in History."

ance.

The reason is plain enough. National governments exist for God and the accomplishment of his purposes. By his permission, and for the accomplishment of his kingdom, the magistrate bears the sword for the punishment of evil-doers.

If we inquire what constitutes a national refusal to serve God, the reply is at hand. The persistent disregard of any one of the ten commandments is clearly such a refusal. The law is the transcript of God and the rule for his service. It constitutes a unit. Every part is essential to every other part. If one may be allowed to disregard the sacredness of the Sabbath, stealing and murder cannot by any authority be prohibited, for the sacredness of property and life rests on the same authority with that of the Sabbath. Hence the Apostle declares, that the violator of one point of the law "is guilty of all."

In the light of this subject, the late battle in Virginia, offered so needlessly by our government on the Sabbath, is full of portent and

warning. May not that inexplicable panic just on the eve of victory be regarded as the finger of God's rebuke to call the nation to solemn consideration?

it;

Moreover we are constrained to say that the violations of God's day are multiplying all around us in the government. With all our resources we cannot contend with God and prosper. Our only hope now is that the people of the land are repudiating the act, and will cry out against that our rulers will repent of it, and of all our national corruption and disregard of moral principles. Here hangs the great question now asked so anxiously by tens of thousands, Will the Constitution, the Government, and the Union right up again from the fearful tornado that, long gathering, has now suddenly burst upon us in all its fury? Will the good ship of State weather the storm and save its precious freight of freedom and equality for the world, or will she drift, break up, and go down?

"For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish."

"Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."— Isaiah i. 18.

Here the desperate persistency and incurableness of sin are set forth by comparing them to the deep and fixed colors so well known in the East. The prophet had just represented Israel as so stricken and bruised for his correction that there was no sound or sensitive spot left from the sole of the foot even unto the head" on which a new wound could be inflicted. Neither multiplied blessings, nor long continued stripes and sufferings availed in the least for the eradication of sin and the purification of sinners. This permanent character of sin, therefore, is strikingly likened to those brilliant dyes which were wrought into the original fibres of cloth, and, among the ancients, regarded as ineradicable and unfading.

White being the common emblem of innocence and purity, guilt was naturally represented by that which is deepest stained. "Scarlet" is the bright red color which was obtained from the eggs of a small insect found on the leaves of the oak in Spain and in countries east of the Mediterranean. Cotton was dipped into it, and came out a livid, or blood red; some say it nearly resembled fire. It was worn by females in the time of Saul, and in later times was the distinguishing dress of kings and princes, and was finally adopted both by the Babylonian and Median soldiers. "Crimson" was the deep red slightly tinged with blue obtained from a shell-fish called "purpura," which