We think, however, that its contents are too much confined to mere anecdote, and too little devoted to a comprehensive and historical view of missionary effort, to answer the end it contemplates.

REVIEW.-The Cabinet Annual Register, and Historical, Political, Biographical, and Miscellaneous Chronicle. Washbourne, London. 1834.

A VERY valuable book of reference, in a more portable, cheap, and convenient form than the work which has, for many years, been known under the name of the Annual Register. It appears to be compiled with great caution, and no inconsiderable research; and although there cannot be a general agreement as to the proportion of space to be devoted to the several depart ments which it embraces, yet we think that the arrangement will, on the whole, be satisfactory.

BRIEF SURVEY OF BOOKS.

1. A Letter to a Preacher on his Entrance into the Work of the Ministry: with some Directions to the People how they may Profit under the Preaching of the Word of God, by Adam Clarke, L.L. D. F. A. S., (Simpkin and Marshall,) The admirable and voluminous works of this eminent and learned divine will always be held in the highest estimation by all those who can duly estimate soundness of reasoning, simplicity of style, and clearness of induction; and though the present 'Letter' does not boast of that deep learning which is displayed in his larger works, the amiable author has embodied in it such a variety of useful and practical information as, while it exhibits his intimate personal acquaintance with all the circumstances he has introduced, cannot fail to be of the greatest value to those young preachers who are about to enter on the arduous labours of the Christian ministry. The work, though it assumes the epistolary form, embraces the following sections or divisions.-1. Concerning your Call to the work of the Ministry. 2. Concerning the Choice of Texts. 3. Concerning your Behaviour in the Pulpit, and Mode of Conducting the Public Service. 4. Concerning your Behaviour in your Circuit, or Place, where you Exercise your Ministry. 5. Concerning your Behaviour in the House where you lodge. 6. Concerning

cerning the Persons with whom you have to labour. 8. Concerning Marriage. 9. Concerning the Care you should take of your Health. To these he has added, as an Appendix, an Address to the People, on Profiting by the Hearing of the Word. The brief space to which we are restricted, forbids our quoting from this very excellent little work; but we must briefly remark, that it embodies much valuable matter, under each of the above points, not in a dry, ascetic, and morose style of vituperative admonition, but in a lively, animated strain of christian friendship: entering familiarly into those minute particulars, of every day occurrence, with which the preacher must necessarily come in contact, and on which he descants with all the ease and vivacity of long experience. On the directions for the pulpit and the study, he is and exhibits a judicious mixture of pleaeminently happy in his mode of treatment, santry and gravity. The books he recommends for perusal, though few, are well selected, and the character of their comporative merits, evinces a close acquaintance, not only with their contents, but their use. The advice in the Appendix is simple, affectionate, and judicious; and calculated to set the practical utility of the preached word in its true light; and make it, under the Divine blessing, "instrumental in making the hearers wise unto salvation."

2. Tom Sanders the Rick Burner, (Seeley.) and,

3. The Manufacturers, by the same Author, (Seeley,) are two short and wellwritten tracts, eminently suited for the present time, as tending to shew the awful and disastrous consequences attendant on the combinations among the abandoned and dissolute of the working classes, which entail misery on themselves, and ruin on the unfortunate victions of their malice. They are both simply but powerfully written, and display the workings of those evil passions which, when once allowed to kindle in the human breast, soon rise above all moral restraint, and, strengthened by the unhallowed oaths and stratagems which always characterise combinations for unlawful purposes, are fanned into a flame that spreads desolation around, and tends to unhinge the frame of human society. We sincerely hope that these little works will be extensively read, as they are well calculated, where any spark of proper feeling still lingers in the breast, to point out the accumulated evils to which such combinations inevitably lead.

GLEANINGS.

John Bunyan.-The history and genius of Bunyan were as much more extraordinary than those of Baxter, as his station and attainments were inferior. He is probably at the head of unlettered men of genius, and perhaps there is no other instance of any man reaching fame from so abject an origin; for the other extraordinary men who have become famous without education, though they were without what is called learning, have had much reading and knowledge, and though they were repressed by poverty, were not, like him, sullied by a vagrant and disreputable occupation. By his trade of a travelling tinker, he was from his earliest years placed in the midst of profligacy, and on the verge of dishonesty. He was for a time a private in the parliamentary army; the only military service which was likely to elevate his sentiments, and amend his life. Having embraced the opinions of the Baptists, he was soon admitted to preach in a community, which did not recognize the distinction between the clergy and the laity.-Sir J. Mackintosh's History of the Revolution.

The Pilgrim's Progress.-His Pilgrim's Progress, an allegorical representation of the Calvinistic theology, at first found readers only among those of that persuasion, gradually emerged from this narrow circle, and by the natural power of imagination over the uncorrupted feelings of the majority of mankind, at length rivalled Robinson Crusoe,' in popularity. The bigots and persecutors sunk into oblivion; the scoffs of wits and worldlings were unavailing; while, after the lapse of a century, the, object of their cru elty and scorn touched the poetical sympathy of Cowper; his genius subdued the opposite prejudices of Johnson and Franklin, and his name has been nttered in the same breath with those of Spenser and Dante.-Ibid.

Royal Tergiversation.-The education of Elizabeth had been severely classical; she thought and she wrote in all the spirit of the characters of antiquity; and her speeches and her letters are studded with apophthegms, and a terseness of ideas and language, that give an exalted idea of her mind. In her evasive answers to the commons, in reply to their petitions to her Majesty to marry, she has employed an energetic word. "Were I to tell you that I do not mean to marry, I might say less than 1 did intend and were I to tell you that I do mean to marry, might say more than it is proper for you to know; therefore I give you an answer.-Answerless !"

Ancient Alchymy.-The ancient books of alchymy, so liberally ascribed to Pythagoras, to Solomon, or to Hermes, were the pious frauds of more recent adepts. The Greeks were inattentive either to the use or the abuse of chemistry. In that immense register where Pliny has deposited the discoveries, the arts, and the errors of mankind, there is not the least mention of the transmutations of metals; and the persecution of Dioclesian is the first authentic event in the history of alchymy. The conquest of Egypt by the Arabs, diffused that vain science over the globe. Congenial to the avarice of the human heart, it was studied in China, as in Europe, with equal eagerness and equal success. The darkness of the middle ages ensured a favourable reception to every tale of wonder; and the revival of learning gave new vigour to hope, and suggested more specious arts to deception. Philosophy, with the aid of experience, has at length banished the study of alchymy; and the present age, however desirous of riches, is content to seek them by the humbler means of commerce and industry.-Gibbon.

Ecclesiastical Casuistry.-A blunder has been recorded of the monks in the dark ages, which was likely enough to happen when their ignorance was so dense. A rector of a parish going to law with his parishioners about paving the church, quoted this authority from St. Peter-Paveant illi, non paveam ego: which he construed, They are to pave the church, not I. This was allowed to be good law by a judge, himself an ecclesiastic too!

Subsidence of the Baltic.-A singular and interesting fact has been ascertained respecting the level of the Baltic. It was suspected that the waters of this sea were gradually sinking; but a Memoir in the Swedish Transactions for 1893 has put the change beyond doubt. From latitude 56 to 63 degrees, the observations shew a mean fall of one foot and a half in forty years, or four-tenths of an inch annually, or three feet four inches in a century. The Baltic is very

shallow at present; and if the waters continue to sink as they have done, Revel, Abo, and a hundred other ports, will, by and by. become inland towns; the gulfs of Bothnia and Finland, and ultimately the Baltic itself, will be changed to dry land.

Literary Notices.

Just Published.

Part III. of the 2nd edition, greatly enlarged, of Billington's Architectural Director.

Memoirs of the Life, Ministry, and Writings of the Rev. Rowland Hill, A. M. By William Jones, M. A. Author of the History of the Waldenses,' "Ecclesiastical History," &c.

Fifteen Sermons preached by the Rev. Rowland Hill, in the 89th and last year of his life.

Part V. of The Christian Family's Assistant. By the Rev. Henry Lindsay Poppewell.

Parts 1 to 6 of Ecclesiastical History. By William Jones, M.A.

A Series of Lay Sermons on Good Principles and Good Breeding. By the Ettrick Shepherd.

A Treatise on Field Fortification, and other subjects connected with the Duties of the Field Engineer. By J. S. Macaulay, Captain in the Corps of Royal Engineers.

The Second Edition. The Life of the original Lawrie Todd, entitled Forty Years' Residence in America. Written by Himself. With an Introduction by John Galt, Esq.

The Case of the Church of England.

The State and Prospects of Toryism in 1834,

Part 61 of the National Portrait Gallery, with Memoirs of Dr. Olinthus Gregory, Sir Jeffry Wyattville, and Edward Baines, Esq. M.P.

Part 12 of a New Edition of the National Portrait Gallery, with Memoirs of Lord Holland, John Wilson Croker, Esq. and the Hon. Robert Dundas.

The Ultimate Object of Evangelical Dissenters Avowed and Advocated. A Sermon, preached at the King's Weigh-House, London. By Thomas Binney. Baines's History of Lancashire. Part 39.

Part 4 of Fisher's Views in India, China, and the Shores of the Red Sea. From Original Sketches by Commander Robert Elliot, R.N.

Guy's Improvement on the Eton Latin Grammar. For the Use of Schools and Private Learners. Joseph Guy, Jun. of the University of Oxford.

by

A Reply to Professor Scholefield's Pamphlet, entitled, An Argument for a Church Establishment, a Discourse preached before the University of Oxford, &c.

In the Press.

Remains of the late Alexander Knox, Esq. of Dublin; containing Letters and Essays on the Doctrines and Philosophy of Christianity, and the distinctive Character of the Church of England.

Archæographia; being a series of Papers on several antiquarian and scientific subjects, connected with the History and Chronology of the Jews, Egyptians. Greeks, Chinese, Tartars, &c. By Isaac Cullimore, M.R.S., &c.

Six Lectures on the Atheistic Controversy; deii vered at Sion Chapel, Bradford. By the Rev. B. Godwin, author of Lectures on Colonial Slavery. Forming the first part of a course of Lectures on Infidelity.

An original Essay on Primitive Preaching. By John Petherick, minister.of the gospel, Totnes.

A Second Edition of Dr. Wardlaw's Lectures on Christian Ethics.

A Charge; with Notes, critical and illustrative, on Acts xx. 28. By E. Henderson.

Journal of Three Voyages along the Coast of China, in 1831, 1832, and 1833; with Notices of Siam, Corea, and the Loo Choo Islands. By the Rev. W. Ellis, author of Polynesian Researches, &c.

Sylloge Theologica; a systematic Collection of Tracts for the use of Students in the Universities, and of the younger Clergy. By the Rev. Dr. Wordsworth, Cambridge.

Man, as Known to Us Theologically and Geologically. By the Rev. Dr. Nares.

Under the direction of his Executors, a uniform Edition of the Works of the Rev. Daniel Isaac, including his latest corrections, and several Posthumous Treatises, never before published: together with a Memoir of his Life.