report of the year 1839, it would seem that only 205,000 children were connected with the schools under the national board.* The cost of annual instruction in them is $2 50 per head for such as learn to read; $4 33 for reading and writing, and $7 50 for reading, writing, and arithmetic. The board express as full confidence in the success of their scheme, as the Kildare-street Society have in theirs; and the latest report mentions but one adverse circumstance, and that is the withdrawing of a body of thirteen Roman Catholic clergymen from the support of the board, "under the conviction that the system as now constituted, could never enjoy the confidence of the Irish people." This is assumed to be a local and temporary alienation merely, and occasioned by the influence of a single prelate. We shall see.

ART. V.-History of the Great Reformation of the sixteenth century, in Germany, Switzerland, &c. By J. H. Merle d'Aubigné, President of the Theological School of Geneva, and Member of the "Societé Evangelique." Volumes First and Second. First American, from the Fifth London Edition. New-York: Robert Carter, 1841. pp. 390, 400.

IT is one of the most pleasing indications of our time, that we receive from Geneva, the cradle of reformed theology, a work written in the very spirit of that great revolution, and by a learned man, loved and honoured for his labours and his self-denial in the cause. That delightful spot, once hallowed by the work of Farel, Calvin, Viret, Beza, the Turretines and the Pictets, has long lain waste, and been trodden down by the foot of infidelity. But we look for better days, and our hopes are quickened by every new piece of intelligence from the little seminary and the evangelical society. At our last advices, the number of students was eight, and twenty-five were pursuing their studies in the prepara

In 1812, a board of commissioners for inquiring into the state of education in Ireland reported, that upwards of 200,000 of the children of the poorer classes were provided with the means of education in the schools then established. Considering the increase of population, and the advantages of long experience, the gain in numbers, from 1812 to 1839, of the educated portion of the children, does not seem to be very flattering.

tory school, making a total of thirty-three. They are under the tuition of four professors. It is believed by pious men abroad, that the establishment of this seminary has had a happy tendency towards the encouragement of scattered believers, and towards the recent acquisition of influence for the truth at Montauban. Geneva was once a source of divine instruction to a large part of Europe: we hope to see it such again. Its site fits it in a remarkable manner to be the inlet of the scriptures and scriptural teaching, to the French, the Germans, and the Italians. From this point the books of Calvin penetrated into northern Italy, and we may expect the same thing to take place in our day, if Christians lend their aid to the efforts which are making.

If we may judge from the notices of public journals, from the sale of these volumes, and from the fact that three rival translations have appeared in England, the work of Dr. Merle is destined to play an important part in the blessed changes which we hope for. It is a production-we speak of the portion translated-of great labour, and at the same time of great vivacity. No history of the Reformation has appeared, in the English language, with so many marks of having been formed by having recourse to the original authorities. The author owns, on every page, his obligations to works in Latin, German, French, Italian, and English, and these for the most part contemporary with the events which he relates. For this he has been eminently fitted by long residence in Germany, Switzerland, and the Low Countries.

It is now more than eleven years since we called the attention of our readers to the voluminous collection of Luther's letters, then recently set forth by De Wette. Ever since that day we have been diligent students of these volumes, and the consequence has been a continually increasing conviction that the key to the history of the early Reformation is to be sought in the private history of Martin Luther, and that this key is found in his own writings, and chiefly in his letters, prefaces, and autobiographical memoranda. Many of these were unpublished at the time when the earlier histories were written, and later works were in a great degree made out of the old materials. Our own age has witnessed an indefatigable research into the documentary monuments of the sixteenth century, and the result has been a body of

* Biblical Repertory for 1830, p. 504.

facts, which affords more complete material for a correct narrative than has ever before been extant. We observe with pleasure that the author has availed himself of these aids. His history, as contained in these two volumes, is in great measure the history of Luther; it could not well be any thing else. It is, moreover, the history of Luther's mind, heart, and inward development. For this he has gone back to the earliest notices of his boyhood and youth; and every where the reformer is made to speak for himself. Any reader will be surprised, who looks through these pages for the purpose of inquiring how many of them are filled with the ipsissima verba of Luther.

A striking advantage of this method is, that it gives an air of reality, a naturalness, and a fascinating liveliness to the history. Such is the rapidity of the action, and such the marked individuality of the characters, and the genuineness of the dialogue, that it becomes dramatic, and we pause and wonder whether these can possibly be the same events which we once read in the heartless annals of Mosheim. Whatever fault may be found with the present work, this is an excellency which it possesses in no common degree: it is interesting as a narrative. This was greatly needed, and the author has constantly and successfully made it a special object of pursuit. Whether the production has not, in consequence of this attempt, lost something as a history, properly so called, is another question; but that it has the charm of reality, and that it whets and satisfies the curiosity of the reader, it needs but the perusal of a few pages to show.

In pursuance of this end, the great personages of the period are presented in a series of portraits, and we are possessed, by a few bold but masterly touches, of the individual traits of each. It is a gallery through which we walk, without weariness and with distinct and lasting impression. In like manner, the cardinal events, on which all the rest of the action turns, are brought out in a prominent manner; and here we have a series of historical paintings. No history is richer in such subjects than that of the Reformation. The dry and tedious details which connect these are omitted, or passed over in a very rapid manner. We are not sure that this is not sometimes carried a little too far, and whether the completeness of the annals is not sacrificed to the interest of the story and as an instance of what we mean, let us refer the reader to the manner in which Erasmus is introduced, vol. i. p. 99. After all, such history as this will be read, and that, if

who neglect the former, will know but the form and exterior signs of the latter. They may gain knowledge of certain events and results, but they will never comprehend the intrinsic nature of that renovation; for the principle of life that was the soul of it will remain unknown to them. Let us then study the Reforformation of Luther himself, before we contemplate the facts that changed the state of Christendom." Vol. i. pp. 118, 119.

We read these sentences with delight, and we insert them in the hope that they will arrest the attention of all who are interested in the conflict now waging between the gospel on the one part, and the papists and ritualists on the other. We shall greatly mistake the true character of the Reformation, if we look upon it as a mere ecclesiastical or even doctrinal revolution. It was the revival of true religion. The principle of the new life in the soul of Martin Luther and the other reformers was its moving power. Our author does well, therefore, when he proposes to go into the depths of Luther's personal experience. Nowhere have we met with so much about the reformer's childhood and youth. We are made acquainted with his parents, his playmates, and his teachers; we sympathize with his servile terrors, and seem to hear his Christmas carols, among the poor boys at Magdeburg; we smile when we find him solacing his weary hours with the lute and the flute, and we accompany him to the university, a pale and timorous student. The manner of relating all this is admirable, at once rapid and full, and the story is delightfully interrupted by the always interesting sayings of Luther himself. How touching the following passages!

"But never did Luther feel ashamed of the time when, pressed by hunger, he sorrowfully begged the bread necessary for the support of life and the continuance of his studies. So far from this, he thought with gratitude on the extreme poverty of his youth. He considered it as one of the means that God had made use of to make him what he afterwards became, and he thanked him for it. The condition of poor children who were obliged to lead the same kind of life, touched him to the heart. Do not despise,' said he, the boys who try to earn their bread by chaunting before your door, 'bread for the love of God,' Panem propter Deum. I have done the same. It is true that in later years my father maintained me at the university of Erfurth, with much love and kindness, supporting me by the sweat of his brow; but at one time I was only a poor mendicant. And now by means of my pen, I have succeeded so well, that I would not change fortunes with the Grand Seignor himself. I may say more; if I were to be offered all the possessions of the earth heaped one upon another, I would not take them in exchange for what I possess. And yet I should never have known what I do, if I had not been to school, and been taught to write.' Thus did this great man acknowledge that these humble beginnings were the origin of his glory. He was not afraid of reminding his readers that that voice whose accents electrified the empire and the world, had not very long before begged a morsel of bread in the streets of a petty town." Vol. i. pp. 127, 128. "The young student spent in the library of the university the moments he could snatch from his academical labours. Books being then scarce, it was in

his eyes a great privilege to be able to profit by the treasures of this vast collection. One day, (he had been then two years at Erfurth, and was twenty years of age,) he was opening the books in the library one after another in order to read the names of the authors. One which he opened in its turn drew his attention. He had not seen any thing like it till that hour. He reads the title :it is a Bible! a rare book, unknown at that time. His interest is strikingly excited; he is filled with astonishment at finding more in this volume than those fragments of the gospels and epistles which the church has selected to be read to the people in their places of worship every Sunday in the year. Till then he had thought that they were the whole word of God. And here are so many pages, so many chapters, so many books, of which he had no idea! His heart beats as he holds in his hand all the scripture divinely inspired. With eagerness and indescribable feelings he turns over these leaves of God's word. The first page that arrests his attention, relates the history of Hannah and the young Samuel. He reads, and can scarcely restrain his joyful emotion. This child whom his parents lend to the Lord as long as he liveth; Hannah's song in which she declares that the Lord raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set him among princes; the young Samuel who grows up in the temple before the Lord; all this history, all this revelation which he has discovered, excites feelings till then unknown. He returns home with a full heart. Oh!' thought he, if God would but give me such a book for my own!' Luther did not yet understand either Greek or Hebrew. It is not probable that he should have studied those languages during the first two or three years of his residence in the university. The Bible that had filled him with such transport was in Latin. He soon returned to the library to find his treasure again. He read and re-read, and then in his surprise and joy, he went back to read again. The first gleams of a new truth then arose in his mind.

"Thus has God caused him to find his word! He has now discovered that book of which he is one day to give to his countrymen that admirable translation in which the Germans for three centuries have read the oracles of God. For the first time, perhaps, this precious volume has been removed from the place that it occupied in the library of Erfurth. This book, deposited upon the unknown shelves of a dark room, is soon to become the book of life to a whole nation. The Reformation lay hid in that Bible." Vol. i. pp. 131, 132.

But it is the history of Luther's conviction and conversion which, more than any part of this work, interests and affects us. It extends through many pages, and cannot therefore be extracted; nor would we willingly do any thing which might make our pages a substitute for the volume itself. A few paragraphs, however, we must offer to the reader, in the hope that after this specimen, he will peruse the whole account. After a minute and most instructive recital of the anxieties and mental conflicts experienced by the young monk, while yet under the condemnation of the law, and vainly endeavouring to procure peace to his conscience by rites and penances, the following interview is related between him and Staupitz, vicar-general of the Augustine monks of Germany. It will be seen, that even amidst the errors and abuses of the monastic life, this good man had discovered what was the way of salvation.