Notices, like charity, ought to begin at home, and so here we are, for the sixteenth time in our editorial career, introducing to the public a new volume of "The Ladies' Repository." No religious monthly has existed so many consecutive years in this country as this, and we cannot but congratulate ourselves on this fact. We have now bordered our pages, but not as symbolical of any intention to go into a "Border War" with our cotemporaries; our only thought was of more regard to good taste, as we put a portrait into a suitable frame. Our work has always been issued in a neat style of publication, and has never suffered in comparison with its class of periodicals; yet we are inclined to add even to its outward attractions, without withdrawing any attention from its literary and religious contents.

We are

satisfied with the present number of our work, and think we see before us a year of progress in making the Repository more worthy of patronage as a Home Magazine, designed to interest the Household; affording mental recreation by some of its features, and imparting instruction by others, diffusing the spirit of the most enlarged view of the Christian Religion. It has been before the world long enough to have its consistency and usefulness tested, and the uniform testimony of the Secular as well as the Religious Press, has accorded to it the highest character as a Magazine of ability within the sphere prescribed. It mingles the lively and severe in proper proportions, never descending to frivolity, and never making religion a sombre and repulsive thing. It has thus been made welcome to the cheerful fireside, and to the chamber of sickness; and in numberless instances a domestic feeling has been cherished towards it, that has made it one of the essentials of the Home.

Having continued so long in the field, we take courage for the future, thankful for every measure of added ability to be useful, and imploring Heaven to hold us away from doing wrong in our career to any soul, sect, cause, or institution.

MEMOIRS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, PoetLaureate, D. C. L. By Christopher Wordsworth, D. D. In two volumes. Edited by Henry Reed. Vol. 1. Boston Ticknor, Reed & Fields. 1851. "The Prelude," we waited ea

After reading

I., JULY 1851.

ger to receive the "Memoirs," that we might enter more thoroughly into acquaintance with "The Growth of a Poet's Mind." What other growth is comparable to this in moral interest, as we behold it in the unfolding character and genius of Wordsworth, exhibiting Beauty in its highest developments, and showing the glory and sanctity of stainless purity in union with rare gifts. Only the first volume of the "Memoirs" is published, and the plan pursued is that which Wordsworth himself adopted to let the poet's life be known by his writings. "His life had not been a stirring one. It had been passed, for the most part, amid natural scenes of quiet beauty. He confided his secrets to his lyre; to it he communicated his feelings and his thoughts on every occasion of interest, public and private; and hence his Life is written in his Works." The author of the Memoirs only proposes to write a biographical commentary on the poems of Wordsworth, and then leave the poetry to tell the poet's life. The letters and incidental papers are a rich portion of the volume, and we shall make use of them when the work is completed.

The American re-print is edited by Prof. Reed, who edited the elegant Philadelphia edition of Wordsworth's Poetry, and is regarded by the author of the Memoirs as suitable for the office, being one who unites "affectionate veneration for the Poet with intelligent appreciation of his Poetry."

The book is issued in a beautiful style, as are all Messrs. Ticknor & Co.'s publications.

THE HARMONY OF PROPHECY; or Scriptural Illustrations of the Apocalypse. By Rev. Alexander Keith, D. D. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1851.

The great purpose of this volume is to resolve the question which Daniel asked of the vision which appeared to him by the side of the great river Hiddekel. The answer which the Messenger of God whom he addressed, was, "Go thy way, Daniel! for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end." Daniel xii. 9. We are satisfied with our Master's method of breaking the seal, and believe that "the time of the end" was in that generation, not some uncertain period yet future. A great abundance of Scripture is given to interest the reader, and to those who are looking for the Second Advent of

Christ, this volume must have great interest. Dr. Keith does not do his work by halves, but goes into it with ardor and perseverance. To us the book is like the Ptolemaic system of Astronomy. To be had at B. B. Mussey & Co.'s, Boston.

THE GUIDING STAR; or The Bible God's Message. By Louisa Payson Hopkins. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. 1851.

This neatly printed book is designed to illustrate the second and third questions of the Westminster Catechism." In her preface, the writer of the volume regards parents as accountable for the correct religious belief of their children, just as they are for their character, and thinks they may generally control the one as the other. Children, she says, must believe explicitly, and we should delight to have a good many parents believe something of this, and act upon it in reference to transmitting their own religious convictions. The book before us is designed to give a statement of the chief points of the Christian Evidences in their simplest and most attractive form." Of course, we do not accept the theology of the book-its vicarious atonement-the innocent punished in the place of the guilty-but to those who do, the volume will be valuable. The frontispiece represents a mother talking to her daughter, with her son beside her, and the supposed remark is, "Yes, Fanny, that is it.

God so orders it, in his providence, that the good are generally happy, and the wicked unhappy." This is a glimpse of the true Guiding Star.

AMERICANS WARNED OF JESUITISM: or, The Jesuits Unveiled. By John Claudius Pitrat. New York: J. S. Redfield. 1851.

On receiving this book we were reminded how struck we were not long since in noticing the Jesuits College in Philadelphia, ingeniously located opposite to public squares so as to avoid being overlooked. The Jesuit is a Jesuit every where. "The mind is its own place ;" and this work of Mr. Pitrat's ought to be read and pondered, for Jesuitism may certainly be ranked with those secret institutions against which Washington wained his countrymen. This work is by a man of learning and ability, and we hope his work will be widely circulated.

York, and Mr. Cheever gives an excellent reason for presenting this book to the world, as he says: "It is because I have thought there is here something of universal interest-because I have seemed to see that, in the workings and struggles, the trials and triumphs of the Sailor herein exhibited, there is matter for thought and instruction to the Man, certainly to the Christian every where," he was induced to put in order the matter of which the book is composed. It is certainly a work of interest, and who knows but that it may prove to many a sailor as the editor desires, a new revolving light to assist in nearing the Port of Peace.

HISTORY OF CLEOPATRA, QUEEN OF EGYPT. By Jacob Abbott. With Engravings. N. York : Harper & Brothers. 1851. For sale at B. B. Mussey & Co.'s, Boston.

Another of a beautiful series of books for the younger portions of our household-graphic portraiture is here given of a wonderful character by a bold and free pencil. It is a comfort to say that Mr. Abbott is a safe writer, when we open a book of his and read as in the first lines of this volume: "The story of Cleopatra is a story of crime. It is a narrative of the course and the consequences of unlawful love. In her strange and romantic history we see this passion portrayed with the most complete and graphic fidelity in all its influences and effects; its uncontrollable impulses, its reckless and mad career, and the dreadful remorse and ultimate despair and ruin in which it always and inevitably ends."

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MATHEMATICS. Translated from the French of Augusté Comte, by W. M. Gillepie, Professor of Civil Engineering and Adj. Prof. of Mathematics in Union College. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1851.

This work is received with great rejoicing by mathematicians around us, and we know of no higher praise as possible than what has been bestowed on Augusté Compte by Mill, Morrell, and Lewes the latter says, in his " Biographical History of Philosophy," "I unhesitatingly record my conviction that this is the greatest work of our age."

In an admirable preface the translator exalts the great worth of this work, and seems to have performed with great delight the labor of introducing this treatise to the English reader. He regards Augusté Compte as pre-eminent for clearness and depth, comprehensiveness and precision; and in the work before us, he has united these to give a comprehensive map of mathematical science, worthy the attention of every student. It

Here are three parts in one of the poetical portion of Shakspeare's Works, which Messrs. Phillips, Sampson & Co. proposed to add to their elegant "Boston Edition" of the great Dramatist and Poet. Printed in large and noble type, the poems seem something new, and our old copy of them dwindles into less than its former unpretending dimensions. Two other parts are to be published, with a splendid engraving of Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse, and "a magnificent title page."

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF LOGIC; from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. By Robert Blakey. London: H. Baillière, (also in New York.) 1851.

We have been reading this work with a good deal of interest, most especially the chapter "On the Influence of Christianity on Logical Science." It is a fine tribute to the all pervading power of the Gospel, exhibiting one of the indirect evidences of its Divinity in the ideas it gave to the world, working mighty changes in logical science, and "of immense value and power to the rational faculties of man."

PHYSICAL HEALTH OF THE BRAIN. A Lecture delivered before the Rhode Island Institute of Instruction, October 18th, 1850. By J. Ray, Superintendent of the Butler Hospital for the Insane. Boston Ticknor, Reed & Fields. 1851.

We have several times introduced the name of Dr. Ray to our readers in connection with his valuable Reports and other labors. We are glad to do so again. The lecture named above, is no ordinary production. It contains no ordinary man's thoughts, but is to the point when the Use of the Brain is up for discussion in connection with Education. We do not know of a production that so admirably touches the subject of the pernicious effect on the Body through the Mind of the miserable novels of passion. Coming as this lecture does from a man of true culture, who has had as large an experience in connection with the management of the insane as any one, and who knows what lies behind the wreck of intellect as the cause or causes of that ruin, we can but give the following extract:

Now let us consider the youth in that transition period which separates childhood from manhood. His mind has become enfeebled by an incessant repletion of juvenile literature, and is un

conscious of any manly thoughts or lofty aspirations gained by communion with a higher order of intellect than his own. In this condition the allurements of sense are spread before him in every variety of form, and his ear is open to every siren song that floats upon the breeze. He has much leisure, which his tastes dispose him to occupy with reading; and when we consider his previous habits and the peculiar epoch of his life, we cannot be surprised that he should make the acquaintance of this description of books, and abandon himself body and soul to their allurements. I say advisedly body and soul, for its mischievous effects are as obvious and as ruinous upon the one as upon the other. By a law of our constitution, violent mental emotions thrill through the bodily frame, and this participates in the vital movement. Here, body and mind act and react upon each other, or, more properly speaking, they constitute but one undivided, individual existence. In these books the tender passion is presented with none of those refinements with which it is associated in pure and cultivated minds. It is designedly carnal and provocative of impure desire, and the youth who surrenders himself to its seductions becomes thenceforth a stranger to every manly sentiment, while his imagination revels in a world of sense, filled with the charms of a Mohammedan paradise. From this point there is but one step, it is true, to actual, overt licentiousness; but a lingering feeling of shame, a faint sense of responsibility, and a timidity natural under the circumstances, often hold him back from taking that step, and he is contented to indulge in secret with such means as nature has provided him. Month after month, year after year, are spent in this dreamy existence, the unholy flame constantly nourished by the kind of reading in question, and its debasing effects as constantly assisted by the habit of selfindulgence. Sooner or later there begins a series of pathological phenomena which, with more or less rapidity, but usually covering a period of years, conduct their miserable subject to mental and physical ruin. Time and occasion forbid me to dwell upon the details of this fearful condition, -the muscular system faltering under the least exertion, and constantly oppressed by a sense of lassitude and fatigue; the nervous system overcharged with irritability, affected by the slightest emotion, and turned into a source of weariness and pain; the mind tortured almost to distraction by groundless anxiety and self-reproach, harassed by a sense of guilt and vague apprehension of a future disclosing not a single ray of hope, and revolving thoughts of suicide as the only means of escaping from the ever-gnawing worm. Neither

LONDON LABOR AND LONDON POOR. By Henry Mayhew. New York: Harper & Brothers. Boston B. B. Mussey & Co.

The seventh number of this really uniqne work is before us, as interesting as any romance, but painful for the remembrance that here is painted what the eye hath seen and the ear heard. In the "Literature of Social Reference," this work will be prominent. We are eager for its completion. In this No. we have the "Gallows" Literture of the street, and descriptions of all sorts of quirks and pranks to turn a penny by the sale of printed sheets and pamphlets.

REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE of the Town of Winchester, for the School Year 1850-1.

Here are thirty pages of printed matter, from which, on a dull afternoon, we received no little amusement, and despite the gravity usually attributed to such productions, we must be allowed to class this with comical literature. Winchester is a new town, formed out of portions of Charlestown, Medford and Woburn, and is certainly a very intelligent community, notwithstanding it has permitted such a document as the one before us to go out to the public. It is the production of the chairman, Rev. J. M. Steele, but the gentlemen associated with him, are no less responsible for the letter and spirit of the Report. The labor of preparation seems to have been regarded as great, and we are assured that the reputation of the new town has been a matter of jealous care. Yet we are told that the committee "receive no reward but the anathemas of unthinking and

selfish men. "" It would seem that many complaints have been made against the committee, but the Report attributes them to a few of the citizens, and very elegantly adds, "There.will be rats in every house, even a new house. There are in every place, a few men whose profession and calling is misrepresentation. They get to be notorious, like bad oxen, for hanging off, and acquire the unenviable power of defeating any cause by advocating it. These men are the causes of all mischief. By misrepresentation and untruth, they deceive conscientious and well meaning citizens, and so succeed in creating some degree of excitement, without which they can no more live than a tipler can live without his brandy and water."-Now this applies to whoever may have disagreed with the committee in the exercise of their "creative and plastic power" amid "a perfect chaos of matter," and we venture to assert that no parallel can be found in any School Report for such undignified and condemnatory language.

The remarks in reference to female seminaries, make us imagine that at some time the author of the "Report" was terribly "cut" by some discreet schoolmarm, and he holds the whole tribe in utter horror, specially they who minister at Bradford or Holyoke. We can only express our wonder at the following period, but do not care to ask his meaning: "Their sweet and gentle teachers, who are in too many instances maiden ladies who have passed a certain corner, have infected their minds by frequent and lengthy lectures on themes which should never be touched, until every spiritual conception is thoroughly eradicated. Many of these teachers would be blessings to the country by being exiled." p. 13. But at another portion of the Report he praises the "maiden ladies" who are teachers in the Winchester schools, and of one he says, "We doubt if her superior, as a scholar, can be found.” The Report is a ridiculous thing, and ought to be severely censured for its vanity, presumption, and ill manners.

PROCEEDINGS of the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Association for the Support of the Warren Street Chapel, together with Mr. Barnard's Report. Boston: 1851.

We read with interest every report of philanthropic institutions on a Christian basis. The above institution is eminently Christian in purpose and result,—a benefactor to the otherwise neglected poor. This pamphlet contains an admirable speech at the annual meeting by Br. T. S. King. We shall give an extract from this speech or address in our next issue.