philosophy which pervades the medical lectures of Professor Bedford, which enables him to discover in the phenomena of the human organism the most unequivocal evidence of a divine Providence directing the destinies of man, and which also leads him to reprobate, in the strongest terms, and irrespectively of views too prevalent among physicians, practices which he considers equally at variance with the dictates of humanity and the precepts of religion.

An Introductory Lecture delivered in the hall of the medical department of the St. Louis University, Nov. 4th, 1845. By M. L. Linton, M. D., professor of the principles and practice of medicine, St. Louis.

The professor has here thrown together some excellent observations on chemistry, anatomy and physiology, with particular allusions to the advantages of the institution in which he lectures. We are pleased to find in the St. Louis university, under the charge of the Jesuits, ample facilities offered to the medical student. The lecturer, in the conclusion of his address, reproves in merited terms the bigotry of those who are hostile to the faculty on the ground of its being connected with a Catholic university.

Discourse on the Life and Character of George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore, made by John P. Kennedy before the Maryland Historical Society, December 9th, 1845. Baltimore: J. Murphy.

We have read this discourse with no little surprise at the coolness with which the orator has proceeded to demolish the character of Lord Baltimore, and, in the spirit of a philosopher of history, to substitute in its stead the creations of his own surmises and fancies. Upturning the facts recorded by Calvert's biographer, he makes his hero a cringing sycophant, who, Catholic though he alleges him to have been all his life, would still prevaricate and conceal his sentiments by an outward conformity to popular prejudices for the sake of office and its emoluments. And yet the discourse winds up by asking if George Calvert is not in some honorable degree entitled to a portion of the praise which the speaker awards to a Jason, a Columbus, and a Washington? The character of Lord Baltimore cuts a very sorry figure in the hands of his new eulogist, which proceeds from the single fact that the discourse falsifies the word of Fuller as to Calvert's conversion. Restore to its proper authority the fact, not the surmise of the cotemporary biographer of Calvert, and there is not an inch of ground left for a single one of the author's positions to stand on. But even take Fuller's biography according to the estimate the discourse puts upon it, as well as the other circumstances of the address upon which this biography of the nineteenth century is predicated, and the attentive reader will see that it is a weak and sickly production which would fall from its own imbecility were it not supported by the crutches which a great name has given it. The spirit of Cecilius Calvert

will no doubt quake at the assurance that there is to be a discourse on his character from the same high quarter, and the genius of Maryland may tremble for the review of the act of 1649 which is also promised from the like source. Sadlier's illustrated edition of Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints. New York. 8vo.

We are indebted to Mr. Murphy for the first part of this edition of the Lives of the Saints. Of the merit and utility of this excellent work it is needless to speak. The whole Catholic world has borne testimony to its high worth, and established its strong claims to public favor. The peculiar features of the present edition are its completeness, being a reprint from the best European publication, and its beautiful execution in a mechanical point of view. The paper and typography are such as to invest the work with powerful attractions, that are considerably enhanced by the engravings and illuminated title-page. The work will consist of twenty-five parts, one of which will appear every two weeks, and will be embellished with a fine engraving.

The Life of St. Patrick, apostle of Ireland, &c.

Baltimore: John Murphy. 12mo. pp. 192. In this volume, which is neatly executed, the reader will find an interesting sketch of the wonderful labors of Ireland's great apostle, with a variety of information relative to the ecclesiastical history of that country. The work is embellised with a handsome engraving of St. Patrick.

A History of Ireland, from its first Settlement to the present time; including a particular Account of its Literature, Music, Architecture, and Natural Resources, with upwards of Two Hundred Biographical Sketches of its most eminent Men; interspersed with a great number of Irish Melodies, original and selected, arranged for musical instruments, and illustrated with many Portraits of celebrated Irishmen, and a series of Architectural Views. By Thomas Mooney, late of the City of Dublin. Boston: by the author. 8vo. pp.

1651.

We have not had time to wade through the massive volume which Mr. Mooney has given to the public; but, so far as we are acquainted with the work, we consider it a very useful production. It is not a thoroughly digested history of Ireland, but it embodies a series of very interesting and instructive lectures on the history of that country, which has always occupied so distinguished a rank among civilized nations, and still forms so prominent an object of solicitude among all who value the blessings of civil and religious freedom. In the work before us, Mr. Mooney has sought only to render a true service to his country, by diffusing more widely the knowledge of its early condition, its refinement in the arts, the valor and patriotism of its people, their ardent attachment to religious truth, and their devotion to the cause of popular liberty, and, though the author has doubtless fallen into some inaccuracies, his labors will not be unacceptable to the friends of Ireland, or the readers of history.

An Address, delivered before the Philomathaan and Phrenokosmian Societies of Pennsylvania College. By William M. Reynolds, Professor of Latin Language, &c. in Pennsylvania College. Gettysburg: Printed by H. C. Neinstedt, 1845.

ROFESSOR Reynolds' Address on American literature has but recently been brought under our notice. It is a fair specimen of the average quality of orations pronounced annually, or oftener, before the literary societies which abound in our academies, colleges, and universities, and rejoice in learned and sonorous Greek appellations. It is not on account of its intrinsic excellence that we mean to offer some comments on this production. The reverend professor has in nothing deviated from the beaten track. We remember in our own school-boy days to have heard the same subject treated in the same manner. VOL. V.-No. 3. 11

The argument then, as now, to prove that we have an American literature-the express image of the American mind and character, quite different from the literature of Great Britain-was a long enumeration of writers native to our soil, beginning with Cotton Mather, and terminating with Washington Irving. Prescott and Bancroft were yet unknown to fame, and in this the professor of Pennsylvania college has the advantage over the tyro who swelled our American pride and won our hearty plaudits more than twenty years ago. We take no exceptions, however, to the general argument of the address. We ourselves do firmly believe that we have an American literature in the sense in which Professor Reynolds seems to contend for it, namely, that a great many American writers have published a goodly number of books and pamphlets on various subjects, in which not a few of them, particularly the theological writers, have set forth their own individual opinions. Neither do we stop to find

fault with the style, save a few glaring defects, which, in a professor of languages, are scarcely pardonable. We hope that the following passage is not a fair sample of the learning imparted or acquired at Pennsylvania college.

"But the revolution gave a new direction and a new tone to eloquence. The popular movements which preceded that event, the provincial assemblies where it lay in embryo, and the continental congress whence it sprang, armed and immortal, like Minerva from the brain of Juno, gave it a fair field, and carried it to perfection.

The professor thinks he need make no reply to M. De Tocqueville's chapter upon "The inflated style of American writers and authors." Any one who has read the following extract from the addres will certainly agree with the professor.

"The despotism of the monster Henry VIII, the fires of Smithfield, the mingled vindictiveness of woman and priest in Elizabeth's iron reign, could not terrify, or check, or exterminate the spirit of Christian liberty kindled by Wickliffe, rendered triumphant by Luther, and still farther exalted and emboldened by Calvin and Knox. It enthroned itself among the mountains of Scotland; it crossed the wild and wintry Atlantic, and, placing one foot upon the rock of Plymouth, and the other upon the shore of the Pacific, it claimed the whole intervening continent as the theatre of its exploits, and its inalienable inheritance.‡

It would not be easy to terrify, much less exterminate, a spirit of such colossal-we beg pardon-continental proportions.

But the writer of such sentences is surely not the man to clear American authorship of the charge of "inflated style." We think little of the professor's judgment, and still less of his pretensions to good taste, when he suggests a comparison between Mr. Webster's clever eulogy of Massachusetts in reply to Mr. Hayne, and that awful adjuration of those who fell at Marathon, to which profane eloquence has produced nothing "similar or second," in ancient or modern times.§ But mere literary criticism is never a

* Page 22. P. 25. Pp. 7, 8. § P. 25.

primary object with us, and the blemishes just referred to would not offer us sufficient reason for animadverting on the address, were not its author guilty of more serious offences. We charge him with want of manners, want of liberality, and want of due regard to historic truth.

A professor in a literary institution ought to be a Christian and a gentleman. It is not very Christian to apply offensive epithets to others; no gentleman deals in odious nicknames. It is true that Luther, Calvin, and John Knox, so much admired by Professor Reynolds, have set their followers a bad example in this regard. But, whatever may be thought of their opinions, no one, at least no scholar at the present day, will pretend to justify their manners. Even in controversy nothing is gained by calling persons harsh names. Generally speaking, it is evidence of a bad cause, or of a very weak advocate. In a discourse delivered by a collegiate professor, on a literary festival, and addressed to the young men whom he is professionally bound to train by example no less than by precept, "in the way in which they should go,” a violation of the courtesies of life is not only in bad taste, but is a public offence deserving of severe rebuke. The "reverend professor of the Latin language, &c. in Pennsylvania college" holds a different opinion. In his address, the Catholic colonists of Maryland are Romanists; their religion is Romanism: and, in a note to page 10, we are informed that "Sir George Calvert, first baron of Baltimore, became a Papist in the reign of James I." It can not be that the reverend gentleman has descended to this vulgarity in order to round his periods. Catholic, or Roman Catholic, would have sounded just as well. Nor can it be that peculiar delicacy of conscience affected, perhaps really felt, by some few stupid individuals, who are exceedingly scrupulous lest they offend God by manifesting even the slightest liberality or courtesy towards their neighbor, from whom they differ in religion. A professor