this house of silence this land of desolation, becoming perpetually still more desolate. It was not in man to contemplate these things without misgivings."

In the chapter on the "Universal Reign of Death,” the ashes of our mortality, the ruins of the "living temple," are defended from the scorn of the philosopher and the impudence of the materialist. It is, indeed, a chief glory of Christ's Gospel, that it contends for the bodies of the saints, as did the archangel for that of Moses. Upon the least comely part of our complex nature the Lord Jesus bestows the most abundant honor.

6

"Let the gross, unfeeling unbeliever bury his dead as he does his cattle; let a false spiritualism that has no countenance in Scripture treat the body as something beneath its philosophic contemplation; let the other apparent extreme of a heartless materialism speak with contempt of our mortal remains, as being no more than other earth, ever passing into other forms; let the vulgar, scoffing infidel characterize them as having no other excellence than to serve as hidden manure to enrich our fields and gardens. With none of these can I hold sympathy. The philosophic and the vulgar strain are alike odious and repulsive. Something tells me that these remains are precious. I think it is an instinct of my nature. Something seems to tell me that, perishing as they are in themselves, they are still, in some mysterious manner, connected with the imperishable, and that their higher identity, their true identity, cannot be lost. They may still be denoted by the names and by the personal pronouns once used in addressing them. They have still a personality, a self-hood, residing even in the matter, and continuing beyond the utmost limits of material dissolvability. The souls of believers pass into glory, but their bodies being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves until the resurrection.' So speaks the symbol of our faith, grounded as it is on Scripture. Their bodies being still united to Christ. Here is the secret of life, even of the indestructible bodily germ. 'Because he lives, they shall live also.' There is a sacredness in this natural feeling of which I have spoken, and Revelation most touchingly as well as powerfully confirms it. It is thus that I have learned to respect sepulchral ashes. It comes from the voice of Nature, and from the tutelage of faith. I learn its confirmation in the school of Jesus. Hopeful tears befit the mourner. He teaches me this by those he himself mingled with the tears of the weeping sisters at the grave of Lazarus, their brother. But, though I may have learned it from faith alone, still it is a lesson I am not willing to unlearn. I would not give away those tears for all the atheist's unbaptized insensibility. I covet not his real or affected stoicism, his brutelike apathy. No, my dead kindred still remain akin to me. The being even of their bodies has not perished-shall not perish. Neither is it another body, wholly alien to the first familiar organization, that is to be the dwelling-place of their future and more glorious existence. Though 'a house not

made with hands,' it will not be 'an unclothing,' but 'a clothing upon.' The link even of the bodily identity, hard as it may be for science and philosophy to trace it, shall not be lost. The Scripture here is as emphatic as it is clear and concise. It is this corruptible,' rò q9apròv rouro, that 'shall put on incorruption; it is 'this mortal,' rò vntov touto, that 'shall' put on 'immortality.' Therefore it is that I respect this sleeping dust and ashes as something connected with a higher life. Their bodies, being. still united to Christ, do rest in their graves until the resurrection.' Thus, whilst Nature intimates that these human remains are precious, Jesus tells me why it is so. The dying members rest with their dying, risen head. 'He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

Those ruins shall be built again,

And all that dust shall rise.

Christ says that he will raise it up, and I believe him. I will therefore build their monuments. These are more than tokens of affection. They are tokens of faith. They evince that their builder expects a resurrection, and that he buries his dead in confidence of Christ's second coming."

The last sermon of the series is a contrast between the sepulchre of him who was of the earth, earthy, and that of him who is the Lord from heaven. In this sermon there are some fine characteristics of style. The opening sentences have a monotone of solemn grandeur, like the last reverberating echoes of the thunder, losing itself among the hills. As a passing remark, we may notice the occurrence in this discourse of an adjective which seems new and beautiful-the word "gloriless." "Beside the record of His life, the history of Cyrus, the annals of Cæsar appear mean- gloriless."

But what is more pleasing, in this sermon, than any nobility of style, is the tender spiritual light transfused through it; the attachment to the person of the Saviour; and the calm, clear eye, which, through the open sepulchre of Immanuel, beholds a happy eternity, not darkened by death.

Upon this sermon, Prof. Lewis remarks: "There is something very peculiar and striking in Dr. Nott's picture of the two graves. I have never seen anything like it, and to me it seems very touching as well as eloquent."

It is interesting to see that President Nott was quite practical in his presentation of these discourses. Plainly, he did not desire that they should be merely conciones ad clerum, in which the faith and understanding of his hearers were to be taken for granted, and in which he would only feel bound to impress more

He

deeply a truth already familiar. He presses the consciences of the unconverted, and holds up a living Saviour to them. makes use of current events, such as a revival of religion in the college; the increased spirituality of the chapel exercises; the ravages of an epidemic by which some of the students were carried off; the beautifying of the college grounds; the laying out of the cemetery; all these are made to cast their side-lights upon the great theme of the resurrection of the dead.

Professor Lewis notes a resemblance to the French preacher, in the frequent invocation of the name of God. If this were a touch of rhetoric caught from those great orators, it would be a fault less excusable than it now is. It is a dangerous maxim: "Mallem cum Platone errare." But Prof. Lewis gives us to understand that the author was in no way indebted to a study of French models; therefore we may regard these apostrophes to God as merely an overflow of surcharged feeling. We can view them only as defects, at any rate. It may be proper, at any time, in a sermon, to ejaculate a prayer, but an apostrophe to the Godhead is a bolder flight.

It is cheering to see that the preacher intimates no theory of the resurrection, desigued to render it less obvious to the cavils of unbelieving men. He insists upon this, that the same body which was nailed to the cross, rose from the sepulchre. So closely does our Lord connect his personal identity with his flesh, that he proves his identity by his hands and feet; " Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself."

It is testified of Paul that he preached Jesus and the Resurrection. He testifies of himself that he preached Christ crucified. There is no discord between these two testimonies. It is impossible to understand the cross without the bursting of the tomb. The risen body of our Lord still bears the marks of the All preaching of the gospel, then, must deal both with death and resurrection. They are the twin hemispheres of the crystal orb of truth. The spiritual eye, in gazing upon either side, cannot fail to pierce to the other. Dr. Nott, in summoning men to look upon the resurrection side, has given the trumpet not only a certain, but a mighty sound.

cross.

ART. X.-AMERICAN AUTHORSHIP.

"American authors and what they have written," would have been, we think, a better title for Professor Hart's" Manual of American Literature," which contains a multitude of extremely interesting details, relating to authors and book-making in this country, without much criticism. This work will be found both entertaining and valuable-is compact, so that the volume is suitable for familiar perusal at the fireside-and will probably prove specially attractive to the general reader from the space given to cotemporary authors, and the literature of the last few years. The larger volumes of Mr. Griswold and the Messrs. Duyckinck, will no doubt remain the standard authority and retain their popularity both with students and others; but the "Prose Writers" and the "Poets and Poetry" of the former, and the "Cyclopædia of American Literature" of the latter, are portly octavos, rather useful for reference, than desirable for perusal in hours of leisure :-the " Manual," on the contrary, is of moderate size, the information contained in it is concisely presented, and the main facts, both as to the authors and their productions, are clearly given without amplification or verbiage. The reader is thus enabled to obtain at a glance precisely the information which he desires-the date of a writer's birth and death, the titles of his works, and even if he be still living, his present whereabouts, employment, his literary status, and the sales of his productions. These details, in many instances, are of the most private and familiar character; and we are not aware that any other volume contains just this sort of information, which, unimportant as it may seem to some readers, is certainly not devoid of interest. A thoughtful reader is apt to find food for reflection in the statement that this or that production, possessing in his own eyes but medium literary merit, has yet secured a sale of twenty, fifty or an hundred thousand copies in a single year, whilst other books, immensely more meritorious in the estimation of sound literary critics, have fallen unnoticed, well nigh, from the press. A sound, if not a very flattering opinion of the literary tastes of the reading community, is apt to recoil from such statements, and the 'likes and dislikes" of the average reader of books are shown. In *A Manual of American Literature. A text book for schools and colleges. By John S. Hart, LL.D., Professor of Rhetoric, etc., in the College of New Jersey. Philadelphia, 1873.

other points, also, the details referred to are valuable and interesting; since a comparison may be made between the respective popular approval of works of fiction, of history, of criticism, of science, and in other departments. The large sales, for instance, of good works upon natural science, indicate that the "general reader," who only a few years since had recourse for amusement to the last new novel, almost exclusively, is now much more deeply interested in the last new view of Darwin, Tyndal, Huxley, or other writers upon subjects quite removed from the love adventures of the heroes and heroines of romance. This and other changes in the literary tastes of the age, are indicated by Professor Hart's Manual, and render it valuable.

The general subject of American Authors and authorship is an interesting one. The country can scarcely be said to be one hundred years old in literature; but in that space of time it has produced books which will take their places among the illustrations of English literature. It seems but the other day that Sidney Smith wrote in the Edinburgh Review, "Who reads an American book?"-and now the London Athenæum, and other not too friendly organs of English criticism, recommend their own authors to look to their laurels, especially in the departments of fiction, and of general science. We are not sure that this caution—as to fiction at least is needed; for George Eliot in the profound psychological novel, Reade and Collins in the "mystery " and "sensation " novel, and Bulwer-dead but alive in his last and yet unpublished works— fairly surpass, we think, their American rivals. But, going back one generation, the literature of America presents us with names which will probably live as long as the names of any of the writers mentioned, and in our opinion will live longer. Since the time of Goldsmith, England has produced no writer with a natural humor, and pathetic grace, surpassing those of Washington Irving; with a rough vigor and abounding life in the delineation of character and incident superior to those of Cooper; with a subtle and weird insight into the world of shadow, even equal to Hawthorne's-and it may be doubted, if a greater successor of Scott in the historical novel has appeared than William Gilmore Simms, who did for South Carolina what Scott did for Scotland, and remains one of the most illustrious lights of our literature. These famous names are quite sufficient in our opinion to redeem American letters in the past half century from the charge of barrenness; and their productions will take a permanent place in English literature, both as works of art, meritorious and valuable for their grace, humor, and invention, and as vivid delineations of a state of society, and of modes of life quite different from those of the old world-a life filled with incident, with change, with startling contrast, and the best elements of the epic.