will be found in Winer of more than 1,500 words and phrases of the New Testament.*

The demand that leads to the publication of such works, in addition to the recent issue of "Olshausen's" and "Eadie's Commentaries," is a source of peculiar gratification to us as the lovers of good learning in the Christian ministry. It is evidence of an unusual interest, at the present time, among us in studies connected with New Testament criticism. We trust that this enthusiasm for thorough investigation may extend to the Old Testament as well. And we will express the hope that the ministry of our denomination at large, and especially that portion of it just entering on the great work of public pulpit teaching, may be nobly emulous of the younger ministry of other denominations in availing themselves of the seaccumulating helps to sacred exegesis and interpreta

tion.

It has been known for some years that the author of a philosophical work called "Fons Vitæ," somewhat famous in the Middle Ages, was a Jew, not an Arabian, as had formerly been thought. The author has come down to us under the name of Avicebron, a corruption of Ibn Gebirol. The Fons Vitæ itself was known mainly through the quotations of Thomas Aquinas and Albert the Great. M. Munck, a distinguished Jewish Orientalist, found in the Bibliotheque Imperiale, a Hebrew work purporting to be a copy of the Fons Vitæ slightly abridged. In continuing his researches, he found a Latin translation of the work, which accorded so completely with the Hebrew manuscript and the citations of Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas, that M. Munck has been able to restore the original treatise with every reason to suppose that it is a correct version of the original Arabic. This edition of the Hebrew version with a literal rendering into French, has been published as the first part of a collection of metaphysical tracts, under the title of Melanges de Philosophie Juive et Arabe.

The author of the Hebrew version of the Fons Vitæ, is, by a Jewish philosopher, named Schem-Tob Ibn Falaquéra. In the introduction prefixed, he gives a full account of the author, whom he calls the learned Rabbi Solomon Ibn Gebirol. As Ibn Roschid was corrupted into Averroes, and Ibn Sina into Avicenna, and Ibn Badja into Avenpace, so the author of the Fons Vitæ appears as Avicebron. He was a distinguished Rabbi of the 11th century, greatly celebrated among the Jews as a poet and metaphysician.

The philosophy of the Fons Vitæ is an attempt to reconcile Providence, Creation, and Revelation, with a system of emanation similar to that of Plotinus, if not identical with it. The Jews are ordinarily said, to have had little influence upon philosophical opinion. But this new publication adds to the chain of evidence, showing that they were inferior only to the Arabs in science at a time when Spain was the centre of intellectual activity in Europe. They compiled the astronomical tables for Alphonso, and furnished physicians to all the European courts, and often to the Popes. The influence of the Cabbala upon Spinoza is thought by some to have been greater than that of Descartes. This system of Theosophic pantheism, supposed by M. Munck to have been compiled about the time of the Christian era, from the writings of a school which during the captivity drew its inspiration from the Zend Avesta, had a wide influence during the sixteenth century. Reuchlin, Steny, More, and many others who might be mentioned, were students of the Cabbala. We have drawn the foregoing facts from The Journal of the Institute.

*Since the foregoing was written the first volume of the work has appeared from the publishing house of Smith & English, Philadelphia.

The unjust and indiscriminate prejudice against the scholastic philosophy is now passing away. Amid much that is arid and worthless there may be found in the scholastic writers abundance of the profoundest and acutest thinking. M. Charles Jourdain has lately issued two volumes on the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, which give a careful and lucid account of the philosophical opinions which underlie the vast theological structure of the "Angel" of the schools. This work will be found an excellent guide to those students who are desirous of studying such portions of the scholastic writings as will repay the labor. M. Cacheux has also just announced another work on the same subject. M. Jourdain's book was crowned by the Institute of Paris, and is enriched by copious citations, ample historical learning, and a full synopsis of opinions.

We see that Mansel's Bampton Lectures are announced for republication by Messrs. Gould & Lincoln. The Prolegomena Logica, and the article Metaphysics in the new edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica have given Mr. Mansel a high position among philosophical writers. These lectures will be found a most valuable addition to theological literature. The lectures are accompanied by copious and learned notes, which are perhaps equal in value with the text. It is a gratifying fact that a man of so much vigor and learning has risen up in Oxford, where Rationalism and Puseyism seem to be conspiring with equal vigor for the overthrow of sound theological thinking.

Dr. Latham has just published a work in two volumes on Descriptive Ethnology. We do not see that any American house has announced it for republication. Though a clumsy bookmaker, Dr. Latham has immense industry in collecting facts, and is also one of the most active contributors to ethnological science in all its departments. He has announced also, an introduction to Comparative Philology, which is soon to be issued.

The University Lectures of Sir William Hamilton, on Metaphysics and Logic, are now just ready for publication under the editorial supervision of Messrs. Mansel & Veitch, his literary executors. These lectures are announced in the United States by Messrs. Gould & Lincoln. This publication is looked for with great interest by scholars engaged in philosophical studies. The opinions of the distinguished author have been hitherto gathered from fragmentary essays and notes, scarcely presenting his doctrines in a reliable and connected form.

A new interest seems to be excited of late in the works of Bacon. The new and elaborate edition of Spedding and his fellow-laborers, is in progress and will soon be completed. This will be likely to take the place of the edition of Basil Montagu, which has become scarce and dear. M. Remusat has lately published an elaborate treatise on Bacon; Dr. Kuno Fischer, of Heidelberg, has also written on the same subject with much learning and ability. It cannot but be profitable for the Germans to come more into contact with the mind and methods of Bacon. This work has been translated into English, and has been some time before the public, but it may not have come under the eye of some of our readers.

Messrs. Sheldon & Co. have announced for republication Vaughan's Hours with the Mystics. This is a work of ample learning, written with such elegance and skill that it is adapted to excite the interest of the general reader. It throws a flood of light upon some of the darkest and thorniest tracts in the history of religious thought. It proves the identity in methods between the old Pagan and Catholic mystics, and the New England Transcendentalists.

A new Evangelical Church Gazette, "Neu Evangelische Kirchenzeitung," ," under the auspices of the German Branch of the Evangelical Alli

ance, and edited by Prof. H. Mesner, made its appearance at Berlin at the beginning of the present year. The old Church Gazette, edited by Hengstenberg, and once so earnest in advocating the union of the Southern and Reformed Churches, now both assails the Reformed Church, and denounces the Evangelical Alliance as a union with the "Sectarians from England and America." The new Gazette is vastly more liberal, and yet is not without its tincture of illiberality.

It professes to be the organ of the German Branch of the Evangelical Alliance, and yet fails to act on the principles of that body. The Alliance embraces the Baptists as much as any other sect, but the Church Gazette does not. The call for its publication, signed by seventy-three names of ecclesiastical dignitaries, professors, ministers, and laymen, throughout Germany and Switzerland, has not the name of a single Baptist, though Baptists took a prominent part in the organization of the German Branch of the Evangelical Alliance, and one of their number, Mr. Lehman, pastor of the Baptist Church in Berlin, was one of the editors of a former paper, now superseded by the larger and more ably edited New Church Gazette.

It should also be known that. Dr. Hoffman, formerly Inspector of the Missionary Seminary at Basle, now one of the chief dignitaries of the "United Evangelical Church of Prussia," in an article in this Gazette, entitled, "Survey of the Protestant World," takes special pains to ignore the existence of the Baptists, not even recognizing them when speaking of Hamburg, where their efforts have been so far reaching, and so well known to the public. Though giving credit to all other sects, he is careful not to name the Baptists. The Methodists, who have had some success in Bremen, are very favorably noticed, because it is not expected that they will form a distinct organization in Germany, but will give new impulse and life to the national church. Whenever an allusion to the Baptists is unavoidable, it is yet with a coldness which but too clearly indicates the feeling towards them. But all this is contrary to the principles and spirit of the Alliance, which had far better lose the support of a few ecclesiastical dignitaries than the affection and confidence of the great brotherhood of Christians.

It would be both wiser and more honorable for the editors of the New Church Gazette to carry out the true spirit and letter of the Alliance.

Sheldon & Co.

BOOKS RECEIVED TOO LATE FOR NOTICE. SPURGEON'S SERMONS. Fifth Series. Sheldon & Co. PRECIOUS STONES OF THE HEAVENLY FOUNDATIONS. TRUTH IS EVERYTHING, by Mrs. Geldart. Sheldon & Co. LECTURES IN METAPHYSICS AND LOGIC. By Sir Wm. Hamilton. Gould & Lincoln.

STATE OF THE IMPENITENT DEAD. By A. Hovey. Gould & Lincoln. THE PILLAR OF FIRE; or, Israel in Bondage. By J. Ingraham. Pudney & Russell.

FRANK ELLIOTT; or, Wells in the Desert. By Jos. Challen. Jos. Challen & Son.

THE METHODIST. By Miriam Fletcher. Derby & Jackson.

ANNOUNCEMENTS.

GILL'S COMMENTARY. Sheldon & Co.

FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BAPTISTS. By D. Benedict. Sheldon & Co.

THE

CHRISTIAN REVIEW.

NO. XCVII.-JULY, 1859.

ARTICLE I.-LANGUAGE AS A MEANS OF CLASSIFYING MAN.*

THE natural history of man is one of the most important, as well as one of the most difficult, departments of modern science. The number, variety and complexity of the questions involved, render it requisite to weigh with great care all the classes of facts which enter into their solution. The tendency in this, as in most new lines of inquiry, has been, to draw positive conclusions from narrow and inadequate inductions. The field of investigation being as broad as man and his manifold relations, nothing which touches either, can be safely excluded from examination by those who assume to lay down authoritative conclusions in ethnological science.

One class of inquirers have taken for granted that man is an animal, and nothing more, and that he is to be described, classified and affiliated, on precisely the same principles with the turtle or the alligator. Another class have ignored the animal nature of man almost entirely, and directed their attention exclusively to the phenomena of his moral and intellectual nature. It is natural that both these classes of writers should fail to give solidity and trustworthiness to their results. He who undertakes to settle any great question of

* Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of America. By Louis Agassiz, vol. i. chap. i., section xvii.

Sketch of the Natural Provinces of the Animal World and their Relations to the Different Types of Man. By Louis Agassiz.

[Contributed to Nott and Gliddon's Types of Mankind.].

ethnology without a comprehensive survey and careful scrutiny of all the elements, physical and mental, which mark likeness or diversity among men, whether taken in the mass or in detail, will fall short of meeting the demands of a truly scientific method.

It is a remarkable fact, that while naturalists have studied. with care the manifestations of instinct and intelligence in animals, as a means of determining specific similarities and differences, they have quite uniformly undervalued the more marked and similar phenomena in man. The evil consequences of such failure can only be estimated from an examination of recent ethnological treatises, written by naturalists who assume that whatever is true of man, is true of every animal, and that the differences noted between them are in degree only, and not in kind. The part which the mind of man plays in his constitution and history, should be the measure of the attention which should be given to mental phenomena, in all attempts to affiliate and classify him. Language is the most important of these mental phenomena, and deserves special attention from the place which it holds as the endowment which especially distinguishes man. By a figurative use of the term language, many writers have endeavored to include under it those rude means of expressing emotion which are common to all animals, and have confounded these with the articulation of man. Having assumed that there is no radical difference between man and animals in respect to language, they easily reach the farther conclusion, that the similarities of voice existing between allied species of animals, are precisely analogous to the similarities between articulate languages belonging to a common stock, and hence, that no affinity of blood can, under any circumstances, be inferred from the fact, that widely separate tribes of men speak the same or a similar language. The generally low estimate which naturalists, of the class to which we have alluded, put upon language as a basis for the classification of men, is expressed with great distinctness by Professor Agassiz in the paper which he contributed to Nott and Gliddon's Types of Mankind, and in the first volume of his con