Raoul Rochette, Gaume, Gerbet. M. Perret, a French artist, has an unpublished work, soon to appear at Paris. In England, Dr. Maitland published in 1846, "The Church in the Catacombs," and Mr. Macfarlane, a small work presenting a popular view.* Dr. Kip was at Rome in 1845, and entered the Catacombs, but for his materials relies on others, especially upon Arringhi's Latin translation of Bosio, two volumes, folio, Rome, 1651, 1659, of which he thinks there is but a single copy in this country.

We can well believe in the fascination of the subject. Even this small work leaves a most delightful impression. An indiscribable sweetness pervades these inscriptions. We pass sheer over councils and synods, sects and heresies, philosophies and rituals, and stand by the graves of those who had gathered their religion from the blessed Saviour himself. It is all soft gentleness, all faith and hope, heaven lying near, and the transition slight, to the green pastures and still waters of the heavenly paradise. It is divine, like the Gospels, like John's descriptions of the Master. Is not heaven softer and quieter than we think? "He giveth his beloved, sleep."

IX. WORKS ON RUSSIA AND TURKEY.

with a

1. The Russo-Turkish Campaigns of 1828 and 1829, View of the present State of Affairs in the East. By Col. Chesney, R. A., &c., &c. New York: Redfield. Philadelphia: H. C. Baird. 1854. pp. 360.

2. The Russian Shores of the Black Sea, in the Autumn of 1852, with a Voyage down the Volga, and a Tour through the Country of the Don Cossacks. author of a Journey to Nepaul. edition. New York: Redfield. 1854. pp. 266.

By Lawrence Oliphant, From the third London Philadelphia: H. C. Baird.

3. The Knout and the Russians; or the Muscovite Empire, the Czar and his People. By Germain de Lagney. Translated from the French by John Bridgeman. New York: Harpers. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co. 1854. pp. 266.

4. The Czar and the Sultan; or Nicholas and Abdul Medjid, their private Lives and public Actions. By Adrian Gilson. To which is added, the Turks in Europe; their Rise and Decadence. By Francis Bouvet. New York: Harpers. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co. pp. 195.

* Preface.

5. Pictures from St. Petersburg. By Edward Jerrman. From the original German, by Frederick Hardman. New York: Putnam & Co. pp. 234.

We will give the reader what must necessarily be a brief, but what we will try to make a distinct and characteristic, notice of each of these books.

Col. Chesney was in Turkey at the time of the former war, (in 1828-9,) and prepared an account of it, which was to have been published in connection with his large work on the Euphrates and Tigris Expedition. Governmental difficulties having prevented this, he takes the occasion of the revived interest in these matters, to bring his work before the public. There are eleven chapters; the first nine give a full account of the former war; the tenth contains the causes of the present war, and the last, the resources of Turkey. The appendix gives the diplomatic, as well as the late secret correspondence. The preface is dated January 31, 1854. The whole is written in the military-despatch style, and gives a more favorable view of the power and character of Turkey, than is generally entertained.

The spirit of Mr. Oliphant's work is seen in an extract from his motto, taken from Custine. To travel intelligently in Russia is "discerner péniblement à tout propos deux nations luttant dans une multitude. Ces deux nations, c'est la Russie telle qu'elle est, et la Russie telle qu'on voudrait la montrer à l'Europe." The Russomania is very strong, and this is no doubt the prevalent feeling in England. Making allowance for it, the reader will find Mr. Oliphant's book one of the best that has appeared. He went from St. Petersburgh to Moscow by rail road; then down the Volga in a slow steamboat, to the country of the Don Cossacks; thence through the Crimea; and returned by Odessa and the Danube. The book is written with much intelligence, and with a slight piquancy that reminds one a little of Beckford and Curzon; it gives a good deal of information that was absolutely new to us. The narrative is not overlaid by reflection; Mr. Oliphant understands that in these days we want facts to know what to do, and money to do it with, and that reflection and advice are rather at a discount.

"The Knout and the Russians," is too ferocious against the Emperor; its object appears to be to say all the evil it can, in the most savage terms. This is bad policy, if it is designed to injure the Czar, for there is a necessary reäction in all fair minds. One becomes absolutely sick of the details of cruelty, oppression and falsehood. The army is bad, so are the nobility, the magistracy a living lie, the clergy

worst of all; the whole thing-Emperor, St. Petersburgh, finances, even the country and climate, a humbug. The book is very coarse scene-painting, lit up by tallow candles, in tin sconces.

"The Czar and the Sultan," does not profess to be more than a sketch of these personages, with some notices of the Russian and Turkish empires. The first is accomplished in about sixty pages; the latter in about twice as many. The Czar is here made to appear as severe, tyrannical, politic, rather vulgar, with flashes of goodness and humanity, but not a mere brute. Abdul Medjid is gentle, melancholy, but not without firmness and occasional severity. About one half the book is a historic treatise on the origin, present state and future of the Turks. We are informed that 50,000 copies of the French edition was sold in Paris in four days. The exciting nature of the subject, at the time, we must suppose had much to do with this.

The "Pictures," is not so recent a work, and is much more favorable in its tone to Russia. It is well-written and should be read as an off-set to some of the others. Even from it, however, one receives a melancholy impression as to the real condition of the country.

X. Vital Chemistry. Lectures on Animal Heat. By Thomas Spencer, M. D., late Professor of the Institutes and Practice of Medicine in the Medical Institution of Geneva College. Published by request of the Class. pp. 114.

The Atomic Theory of Life and Vital Heat, vegetable and animal, as balanced by the Agency of Water. By the same. Transactions of the Medical Society of the State of New York. pp. 75.

Dr. Spencer has brought out, in these works, a new theory of life and vital heat. It is rather deep water for most people, and we are not sure that our readers will understand it, the first time they read it over. We would not recommend it to be taken up after dinner. We found it very interesting, though our taste lies more in the direction of mind than matter, and confess our surprise that it has not attracted more general attention in this physical age. The following account of it has been furnished us, which our want of space has compelled us to abridge.

Harvey's "Circulation of the Blood," was a demonstration of the symmetric and visible channels, through which the streams and streamlets of blood, at once infusing heat and arousing to motion, flow in all animal life. The author's "Atomic Circulation" proposes the demonstration of a

problem, ten-fold more intricate. It attempts to explain the invisible yet harmonious series of chemical, or atomic changes, running through all animal and vegetable life, as warmed, nourished and moved by one common law.

According to the author, substantive caloric arouses the atomic circulation" in all life. In the simplest language; substantive heat, heat as a physical thing, is the mainspring of all motion, among all atoms or masses of matter, dead or living. The laws of heat are hence the laws of all motion, the laws of nature.

It has been a common saying, repeated, for example, by Scott in his Bible notes, that "we do not know how the grass grows." In short, the law of life has neither been previously demonstrated, nor has even the attempt been put forth to display the entire circle of chemical changes which make up, or are essentially connected with, physical life. It has been deemed too intricate for the grasp of finite mind. It is obvious that, if this could be accomplished, its influence upon practical medicine must be very great.

Heat, according to the author, is not only a substantive agent, though without weight, but the one universal ether pervading all space, attenuating and changing densities, forming the connecting link between the material and mental, commingling with and among the ponderable atoms, not only of animal and vegetable life, but of stellar motions, as the physical plenum of the universe. Caloric combines with, and is disrupted from, the weightier atoms, in exact mathematical ratios, just as such atoms chemically combine among themselves, thus moving and balancing all things, as one harmonious whole.

The decomposition and re-composition of water, by caloric, the condensation and expansion of this all-pervading agent, is made not only the balance-wheel of vital heat by its vaporization, but at every interior point of the animal creation, the condensation of water and its solid union with carbon imparts free vital-heat, just as water freezing imparts free heat.

The author, of course, makes issue with the accredited doctrine, that the carbon for vegetable growth is drawn, via the leaves, from the carbonie acid gas of the atmosphere.* This, in his judgment, is a fundamental error. According to him, vegetables and animals make and unmake carbonic acid for their own growth and vital heat, by aid of iron; it as one of six principal working elements, uniting with the other of the sixteen organic elements, and all guided by one law of chemico-atomic changes; iron being alike the instrumeut of nature for making carbonic acid at leaf and lung. The carbonic acid is not only formed by the sesqui-oxide of iron, but at the leaf it is made and unmade with the speed of thought.

This is the primary issue. A collateral issue is made with the leading thought of Mr. Grove, in his admirable work on the Correlation of the physical Forces, that heat is an imponderable negative, and not a substantive force.

* Liebig.

It is impossible for us, in our narrow space, to go into the minutia of Dr. Spencer's theory. It is applied to animal and vegetable life, to electricity and the telegraph, to the Aurora Borealis, to gravitation, and, in short, to the entire range of chemics and mechanics, from the minutest plant or insect to the motions of the planets. We commend this interesting theory especially to all our friends who have a taste for physical science.

XI. RECENT WORKS OF THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY.

1. The Atonement of Christ, and the Justification of the Sinner. Arranged from the Writings of the Rev. Andrew Fuller. By the Editor of his Complete Works. pp. 396.

The Society cannot give us too much of Andrew Fuller. Clear, forcible, evangelical, judicious, we can most cordially commend him. Only, we observe that this is a compilation from various parts of his works, and we always feel a little apprehension in such cases, lest the truth may not be given, in the relations, and with the qualifications of the author himself. We trust that the Atonement here presented is precisely the full and free Atonement that Andrew Fuller preached.

2. Memoir of Rev. Philip Henry. By his son, Rev. Matthew Henry, the Commentator. Abridged from the standard edition, as corrected and enlarged by J. B. Williams, LL. D. pp. 346.

Dr. Chalmers says, "One of the most precious religious biographies in our language." Rev. J. A. James, "One page of Philip Henry's Life, makes one blush more than all the folios of his son Matthew's peerless Exposition." Mr. Jay, "Who, without sentiments of love and veneration can think of Philip Henry?" Mr. Henry was a model of the patriarchal and somewhat quaint character, which we fear is passing away; he led a cheerful, holy, happy life, beloved by every one who knew him. His children were all settled pleasantly near him, and the blessing of God seemed to attend all he did. There was an unction and a pleasant ripeness in his character, and at last, he came to his grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season. We wish we could see more of such ministers. He never occupied a prominent place, but lived in the country, like some green, strong and spreading oak, under whose branches many sheltered. The Tract Society do well to publish healthy works like these. It is a type of Christianity especially needed in America.