who is not afraid of what looks like Truth because it is called Orthodoxy, or unable to recognize the struggles of honest souls in the questionings of those who are called unbelievers. Far more than this we can truly write of some of the Discourses, especially those entitled "Docility," and "Religion a Refuge from Evil," which are admirable at once for breadth and for positiveness. The latter is at once a grand refutation of the sciolism which presumes to justify the ways of God to man, and a most successful testimony for the true defence against our fear and our grief.

E.

The Voyage of the "Fox" in the Arctic Seas. A Narrative of the Discovery of the Fate of Sir John Franklin and his Companions. By CAPTAIN M'CLINTOCK, R. N., LL.D. With Maps and Illustrations. Boston: Ticknor and Fields. 1860. -There is something especially refreshing in a book which was not made by a bookwright. Professional writers have much to learn from those who, with only the education of a gentleman, take up the pen, not because they would make paragraphs, but because there is something which must be told, and can be told only by them. We are secure in such a case against rhetoric and mere verbiage, especially if the writer, having achieved much in act, is under no temptation to try to add achievements in word. This Narrative is a narrative, and not fine writing; and although many of the details are such as the reader of stories of Arctic explorations is perfectly familiar with, the account of the discovery of the remains of the Franklin Expedition gives a peculiar and sad interest to the volume. We should say, Let the Arctic world rest, let us lose no more valuable lives of brave navigators in those barren regions!—were not the utterance checked by the remembrance of the heroisms that have been born of these seemingly unprofitable ventures. Certainly one might as well go and perish bravely, if to no tangible purpose, there, as die of routine and of utter ennui amidst comforts.

E..

A Trip to Cuba. By MRS. JULIA WARD HOWE. Boston: Ticknor and Fields. - Mrs. Howe's tale of travel deserves to be rescued from the imprisonment of a bound volume of magazines, and to be sent forth in comely guise, as a manageable fireside book. We followed the steps of her pilgrimage in the day of it with great interest and real entertainment, and not, we trust, without profit, though we

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are ready to confess that our object was amusement, not instruction. We found what we sought, for there is a deal of true humor in the narrative, and more; and we are glad that so clever a woman has sailed on the sea, and lived in hotels, and visited plantations, places of amusement, of torture, of worship, and lived to write out her experiences for duller and less enterprising mortals. The course of travel was old and familiar, but the eyes that saw, and the ears that heard, and the pen that wrote, were new; and even in the multitude of books the appearance of the little volume is justified.

E.

Poems, by the Author of "John Halifax, Gentleman." Boston: Ticknor and Fields. 1860.- In common with a multitude of persons, we are thankful to know who wrote "Now and Afterwards," the exquisite and most touching little poem, beginning

"Two hands upon the breast,

And labor's done;"

but this is the flower of the anthology, and most of the residue seem to us to be scarcely more than mediocre.

E.

Poems. By SYDNEY DOBELL. Boston Ticknor and Fields. 1860. Our first feeling in turning over these pages was a sense of disappointment; but as we went on, and looked deeper down, the words began to glow, and the true poetic fire made the heart burn.

E.

The Annual of Scientific Discovery: or Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art for 1860. Exhibiting the most important Discoveries and Improvements in Mechanics, Useful Arts, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Astronomy, Geology, Zoology, Botany, Mineralogy, Meteorology, Geography, Antiquities, &c., together with Notes on the Progress of Science during the Year 1859, a List of Recent Scientific Publications, Obituaries of Eminent Scientific Men, &c. Edited by DAVID A. WELLS, A.M., Author of Principles of Natural Philosophy, &c. Boston: Gould and Lincoln. 1860. To all who are interested in the progress of science, to the true children of the age of inventions, to the rhetorician who would replenish his store of metaphors and illustrations, to the general reader even, this volume is of great value and interest.

E.

WE presume there is no character from which hope has been completely eliminated and lost. But there are a great many characters in which it is not a prevailing and inspir ing force. There are some whose future is never clear, and, as a consequence of this, the present is always under a cloud. Good cheer we hold to be one of the prime Christian virtues and graces, and it depends more upon ourselves than we generally acknowledge. There is no one, whatever his temperament or his surroundings, who may not attain unto it, unless there is in him some hereditary taint of monomania; and even then we are not sure but the mania may always be kept at bay. Despondency, in fact, is an inceptive insanity, and needs to be watched and carefully barred out from our domestic, social, and religious world; while the door should always be kept open toward hope, that it may come in with its irradiations and rainbows.

In the household, a morbid disposition develops itself in chills and gloom. Sorrow is good for us, for it melts our hearts and subdues our selfish will. Anger we can endure, provided it comes and goes like the lightning, and leaves a

clearer atmosphere afterwards. But a moody temper, that glooms out day after day, and loves the darkness better than the light, is a great deal worse than that. It generally chooses to retreat within the prerogatives of silence and reserve. It says very little, it refuses to state its case with any such explicitness that you can apply a remedy. Only it implies by its tone and manner that it is enduring great wrong and suffering, slow martyrdom, somehow and from somebody. Its influence on the economy of the household is very much like one of those long easterly storms that invest your premises with a sullen air which permeates all the nooks and crannies, makes even the paint and the furniture look dingy, singing doleful tunes around the corners of buildings, wailing on a minor key through old crevices, and finally possessing the whole house with its damps and shadows. Not less pervading are the chills and damps of a moody spirit, too fond of self-martyrdom to utter loud complainings, but choosing rather in silence to radiate itself through the household. Whenever any house has become possessed with such a spirit as this, I rather marvel that the swallows and the robins should come and sing about the premises, for it seems more fitting that the owls should perch on the chimneys, and the bats seek their habitation under the eaves.

Mark the contrast to this where good cheer is the prevailing and elastic spirit, and sheds over all things its light and gayety. When hope has become such a habit of mind as to give spring and buoyancy to its natural movements, two results invariably follow. Duties become easy, and common troubles become light. The same amount of physical strength goes twice as far, if put forth in a cheerful and not in a desponding mood. In one case obstacles become slight; you stretch out your hand, and they vanish. Distance becomes less, because wings are added to your feet. In the other case, the body hangs lifeless on the spirit; you carry it about by main strength, and even the grass

hopper is a burden. And, what is of vast importance, when hope lends its spring to your motions and radiates from your heart, it inspires all about you with strength and confidence. The secret which a great many people have of gaining the victory, is that they breathe courage into those that work with them. They make the atmosphere about them electric, and so it braces everybody else that comes and breathes it. The troubles that come, bound off with feathery lightness, yea, in such an electric air they rather dance through it for sport and pastime; whereas, upon one of these collapsed souls they are sure to alight and cling with a tenfold tenacity. We infer, then, that good cheer is one of the prime duties of the household,that good cheer which is born of hope, flinging its prismatic colors over common interests and common things.

Temptation comes in subtle and variant shapes. There are some who can resist the Devil when he urges to grosser sin, but who do not resist him when he sends those multitudinous little imps of darkness, that come up into the house like the frogs of Egypt, covering the chairs, the floors, the ceilings, the window-panes, and settling down as an impalpable cloud on all the household, and the minds of all within it, so that whereas there was once merry sunshine, flashing free and filling the whole house from cellar to attic, there is now moping silence, despondency, and spleen. These tempters are sometimes harder to keep off, for they creep in through cracks, and broken panes, and doors ajar, and sometimes, perhaps, have got possession before you know it. Some will have it that there is no resisting the emissaries of Satan when they come in the shape of these dusky but almost invisible gnomes. Do not believe it: they seldom come where affection reigns in its fulness; and when they do, they will vanish before a few flashes of heart-sunshine, and

"Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,

And as silently steal away."