ART. X.-CRITICAL NOTICES. 1. Plain Sermons. By Contributors to the "Tracts for the Times." New York: 1841. J. and H. G. Langley. In Two Volumes. pp. 336-350. THESE two neat volumes of sermons are introduced to the public with the official recommendation of the Right Reverend the Bishop of the Diocese of New York. To those familiar with, and approving of, the "Tracts" in question, they bear on the title-page their own independent guarantee for piety and sound churchmanship-to those, however, ignorant of them, or prejudiced against them, the name and sanction of Bishop Onderdonk may be of some avail to give them currency. For ourselves, we rejoice alike as critics and churchmen, at their publication, as tending to settle a much-disputed question, by bringing their authors' principles to a practical and conclusive test of truth. It is trying the tree by its fruits. If the root of doctrine in them be unsound, we shall have such "apples of Sodom" as Rome puts forth in her popular teaching; but if engrafted on the true vine, we shall have the sweet and wholesome nourishment of the Christian. Were it but as critics. then, we say we rejoice, as we ever do, in the settlement of all "vexed questions;" as churchmen, however, much more, and, most of all, should it appear, as we think it most clearly will, that there is no leaven of "papacy" in them. Of this, however, let their readers judge. After a pretty careful perusal we at least can find none. Nor let their readers imagine that this arises from any concealment or keeping back of past opinions. On the contrary, there is evident between the tracts and the sermons a perfect identity of thought and feeling. The same system, in short, of " the gospel in the church," and only varied in language now from the argumentative to the didactic form. The same doctrines, with the same singleness of principles, and directness in their application, the same unpretending simplicity of language, and deep practical piety, in all their conclusions-all this shines forth equally in both publications. What we mean by our argument is this-that the tracts may be definitively judged from the sermons. If there be evil in the one, it will be but made so much more evident in the other, by being put, as all their doctrinal positions here are, into a practical and tangible shape. We may misunderstand their opinions in their theoretic teaching, we cannot misunderstand them when exhibited in their practical development. Therefore, again we say, "By their fruits we shall now know them;" and to that test we are willing to leave them, but still not without a little further explanation of our views in respect of them, which we give the more freely, inasmuch as we cannot but think it a judgment of peace and reconcilement. Whatsoever of human teaching awakens continued opposition in sincerely pious and well-instructed minds, must have in it, we deem, something of error either in show or substance; and until this seat of apparent, or real error, be discovered and distin guished, the true is confounded with the false, and blame is thrown upon the whole instead of the part, and men think they are opposed to that to which, in truth, they are not opposed. Now, the publication of these sermons goes to effect, we think, this needful separation, and to show to those hitherto opposed to the "Oxford Tracts," on how small and unimportant points their objections really turned; and when these "straws" of controversy were separated from the doctrines by their being reduced to a practical form, that they had in truth no real quarrel whatsoever with the authors or their opinions. What that quarrel truly was, on the part at least of sincere churchmen, here appears, we think, as a "residuum" now left behind-the shell, and not the kernel of their doctrine. The novelty and boldness of their tract-teaching, their combined effort, giving it an air of party-the controversial tone necessarily assumed, and occasionally, too, the overstrained language of advocacy for neglected truth, or despised usages, these will be found we think, to have been the real provocatives to jealousy and suspicion, and these once removed through the simple change of manner into the quiet teaching of the pulpit-their opponents, we predict, will search in vain for the magnified object of their fears and condemnation. In this light, then, do these sermons from Oxford strike us as a happy settlement of angry controversy, at least in the public mind. They are such sermons as from our pulpits are seldom heard, we might add, never printed-PLAIN-clear to the simplest apprehension-without one word from beginning to end, either needless or rhetorical. Men are here spoken to as by one in earnest-who has a message to deliver to them, of life or death, and no time to waste on "periphrases." They are spoken to as by one also who has a right to speak-" sent"-" commissioned"-" empowered" by their common master to communicate his WILL to those who are bound to obey it. Now such sermons we like to read and would gladly more often hear, and are therefore pleased to see that lay-readers in the church are by the bishop empowered to use them. We think it will, and trust that it may so familiarize them with their style and manner, that their subsequent ministrations may partake of the same happy influence. For their guidance and encourage ment in this matter we would add that the style of these sermons is but one of the fruits of the church system they teach—it is the language that naturally comes to the lips of him who teaches "as having authority, and not as the scribes." With these views, touching both the style and matter of these sermons, we cordially commend them to public patronage. 2. A Treatise on the Rights and Duties of Merchant Seamen, according to the General Maritime Law and the Statutes of the United States. By GEORGE TICKNOR CURTIS, of the Boston Bar. ton: 1841. C. C. Little and J. Brown. 8vo. pp. 456. Bos FROM as thorough an examination of this treatise as the recentness of its publication has allowed us to bestow upon it, we feel justified in saying it is the very thing for the purpose which it is designed to answer. No book relating to the great subject of commerce was more needed, or could be more useful than this; and we feel confident of the concurrent testimony of the whole bar, at which its author practises, when we add that there was no member of the profession better qualified than Mr. Curtis, either by talent or legal learning, to supply the desideratum. Its appearance is particularly opportune at this time, when an unusually deep interest is taken in that class of men, whose rights and duties it defines, and we believe no greater service could be rendered them by the associations formed for their moral improvement, than by providing that one copy at least of this work is placed in the forecastle of every ship that sails from our ports. Every shipmaster and every merchant will certainly find it indispensable. It is neither our purpose, nor our province, to enter upon the consideration of any of the nice points of law called up in Mr. Curtis' treatise; we leave that to the legal journals; our principal object in this short notice, will be effected if we contribute to make this valuable work known to men out of the profession. To enable them to form a more precise idea of its character we subjoin the heads of its leading divisions, which are-Of the hiring of Merchant Seamen;— Of the internal discipline and economy of the ship;-Of the Master's relation to the vessel, cargo, and freight;-Of the earning and payment of wages;-Of the remedy of Mariners for the breaches of their contract. To which is added an appendix, chiefly of Forms and Sta tutes. As a specimen of typography, we may point to it, as another proof, that the Boston press is still distancing the New York; the latter has sent forth nothing to compare with this beautiful volume. 3. Life and Literary Remains of L. E. L. By LAMAN BLANCHARD. Philadelphia: 1841. Lea and Blanchard. 2 vols. 12mo. So many pleasing associations have long been attached to these "mystic letters," L. E. L., connecting the memory of her whose genius has thus immortalized the shadow of a name with so much that is bright and beautiful, we have dwelt with such delight on her pages, and so deeply mourned her mysterious fate, that it was with no ordinary interest we turned to the record of her life by a biographer of her own selection, in the hope of finding a full and accurate delineation of her mind and character, and a faithful narrative of her eventful history. But in this expectation we have been disappointed; Mr. Blanchard has done but little by his own labors to increase the interest before felt in the very remarkable person who is the subject of his memoir, or add to the amount of information concerning her, of which the public was already in pos session. As it is not our intention here to speak of her merits as a writer, we shall touch only upon a few points in her personal history which are particularly treated of in the volume before us. Mr. Blanchard gives a slight, but rather pleasant sketch of her childhood, from which we learn, that she very early discovered a decided taste for books, as early even as when she learnt to read, and that, as is usual with children, she was not satisfied with reading those only that were permitted and prescribed, but contrived means of access to the sweeter fruits of such as were forbidden, so that she had devoured some hundred and fifty volumes of Cooke's poets and novelists before she grew up. This, no doubt, had great influence in inspiring her with a passion for the distinctions of authorship, which must have shown itself very early, for she could hardly have entered her teens when she ventured upon her first literary effort, a narrative of the adventures of her cousin, Captain Landon, during his absence in America; and but a year or two afterwards she appears as a regular contributor to the "London Literary Gazette." At this period her life becomes literary history, and her biographer's account of her in this respect, is drawn chiefly from her letters and other papers. Touching the peculiar caste of her thoughts and feelings, the principal point upon which he dwells, is the error of the general impression that she must have been "consumed by sickening thoughts," or have experienced "baffled hopes and blighted affections," because her harp was generally attuned to sadness. Mr. Blanchard denies that there was any such " heavy weight upon her heart," and accounts for the sadness of her muse by supposing that "she less frequently aimed at expressing, in her poetry, her own actual feelings and opinions, than at assuming a character for the sake of a certain kind of effect, and throwing her thickly-thronging ideas together with the most passionate force, and in the most picturesque forms. Sorrow and suspicion, pining regrets for the past, anguish for the present, and morbid predictions for the future, were in L. E..L. not moral characteristics, but merely literary resources. The wounded spirit, and the worm that never dies, were often terms of art, or means to an end." But in thus supposing that her sadness was feigned for effect, he forgets that trials are our common heritage, of which she must have had her share, and, like other poets, would most probably make use of her peculiar gift as a" vehicle for revelations of the heart." And who that has read the story of her life, will doubt that she had cause for sadness? Her wit and genius, her youth and personal attractions, her affectionate, generous, ingenuous, enthusiastic, independent, and innocent spirit, and, still further, her great popularity as a writer, made her a prominent object for the shafts of jealous calumny, and offered her as a prey to the " spiders of society," "Who weave their petty webs of lies and sneers, Surely it was enough to bring sadness upon any pure-minded woman, and particularly one of her sensitiveness, to be made the victim of envious malevolence, and of the infamous rumors which it had invented and circulated. Happily she had something to sweeten her cup of bitterness; her numerous friends among the wise and good offered her their sympathies, and assured her of their undiminished confidence, which made amends for the world's injustice, and enabled her to endure its censure. Society also continued to extend to her its welcome greeting, thus affording her the most satisfactory evidence that a vindication of herself was unnecessary from slanders originally spread by the malicious, and remembered only by those whose own wickedness ever makes them suspicious of others' virtue. But still, to prove that all these marks of affection and attention were merely palliatives, and not cures, and that the whole vista of her future life must have been permanently darkened by these passing shadows, we need only advert to the fact of her voluntary severance of the tie which bound her to one she loved, in compliance with the "dictates of high-minded feeling, and nice sense of honor, and delicate pride." L. E. L. was a woman of heart, and must have known, when she did violence to her affections, and gave back to her lover his plighted vow, that it would be the wreck of all her earthly happiness, and her subsequent melancholy history proves that it actually was so. In our view it was an unnecessary sacrifice, for which we cannot account; for, supposing her pride to have been a stronger passion than her love, as is often the case in the female heart, it certainly would not have afterwards permitted her to marry a man whom she did not love, if it had required of her to decline marrying one to whom she had been betrothed, and whom she did love. |