told confidently that babies like the taste of rum. And we know, from our own observation, that young children like the taste of good Madeira wine.

The paragraph in the middle of p. 41 depends entirely upon two or three ifs. Great virtue in if."

In the first part of p. 44, the argument again depends upon ifs. In this way, any thing may be proved.

We should be very unwilling to take the opinion of modern ultraists, with regard to the Spanish wine which is mentioned pp. 44 and 45, upon the authority of a friend, as being delightful, and without any intoxicating quality. The liquor which has been set before us as unfermented wine, is woful stuff. The liquor mentioned by the friend of Prof. S. is probably some weak kind of wine, equivalent to what we call water-cider.

The author begins the "ultimate view of the question," in the 46th page, with great triumph. "We have now before us the complete development of what the Bible contains, respecting wine and strong drink." Instead of which, we maintain that the subject is enveloped, and confounded by a string of assertions without proof, and a mass of irrelevant matter. He proceeds, "We have before us such information in regard to the ancient methods of making, preserving, and using wine, as will enable us to speak understandingly in regard to the subject." We must say that we have seen nothing of all this in the pamphlet, and have desired, all the way, to know upon what authority the assertions with respect to the wines of the ancients are grounded.

In p. 54 it is again asserted that "the Passover is celebrated with wine newly made from raisins, where unfermented wine cannot be had." This has already been disposed of.

The wedding party, at the marriage in Cana, must have been in a sad plight before morning, if, beside what they had already taken, they drank from twelve to eighteen firkins of grape-molasses. Joseph's brethren also must have been. roughly dosed if they got merry upon molasses.

Pages 59 and 60: "Antiquity knew nothing of such a state of things as now exists in Europe and America. The discovery of distillation has well nigh converted our race into one of drunkards." According to Horace, however, there must have been some sound drunkards in old times if the actor Fusius was so drunk asleep that two hundred thousand people crying out could not awake him.* Adam Smith, in

* Hor. Sat. III, Lib. II, v. 60.

his Wealth of Nations, says " It deserves to be remarked too, that, if we consult experience, the cheapness of wine seems to be a cause, not of drunkenness, but of sobriety. The inhabitants of the wine countries are in general the soberest people in Europe; witness the Spaniards, the Italians, and the inhabitants of the southern provinces of France. People are seldom guilty of excess in what is their daily fare. Nobody affects the character of liberality and good fellowship, by being profuse of a liquor which is as cheap as small beer. On the contrary, in the countries which, either from excessive heat or cold, produce no grapes, and where wine consequently is dear and a rarity, drunkenness is a common vice, as among the northern nations, and all those who live between the tropics, the negroes, for example, on the coast of Guinea. When a French regiment comes from some of the northern provinces of France, where wine is somewhat dear, to be quartered in the southern, where it is very cheap, the soldiers, I have frequently heard it observed, are at first debauched by the cheapness and novelty of good wine; but after a few months' residence, the greater part of them become as sober as the rest of the inhabitants."

Having thus looked through the pamphlet, we must be permitted, after the example of its author, again to repeat what we have before observed; namely, that a theory is there assumed which supposes that wine mentioned in Scripture is of two kinds, fermented and not fermented, the former a curse, the latter a comfort and blessing. This is the foundation of the whole work; and this foundation is built upon quick-sand. It is surprising that one possessed of so much information as the writer of the pamphlet under discussion, should be capable of uttering so much incoherent and irrelevant matter, under the impression of pursuing his argument in a logical manner. He has raised such a cloud of Hebrew and Greek words, positive and oft-repeated assertions, pompous phrases, and accumulated sentences, that he seems blinded by the dust with which he has surrounded himself. And all this, no doubt, passes with many for wonderful learning and resistless authority.

Temperance is a Christian virtue which can never be too sedulously cultivated. But there is an intemperance in the zeal of some of the modern advocates of that virtue which leads them, as we have seen, to wrest even the Scriptures from their meaning, and which will, in the end, pull down the very cause which they are striving to build up. There is also a spirit of dogmatism and denunciation often exhibited, where modesty and humility would be more becoming.

It would be well for all such intemperate advocates of temperance, to bear in mind what is said by the author of the wine pamphlet at the foot of p. 42-"extreme positions in respect to all such questions are hazardous. A community may be misled by the ingenuity and eloquence which sustains them, for awhile. But reaction never fails."

Extracts from the letters of the Rev. ELI SMITH and the Rev. DANIEL LADD, referred to in the foregoing remarks.

The first is taken from the Journal of Commerce, and is as follows:

"THE WINES OF SYRIA. The last Theological Review,' published at Andover, contains a very interesting article from the Rev. Eli Smith, on the wines of Mount Lebanon. Mr. Smith has been near twenty years a missionary in the country concerning which he writes, and being a man of intelligence and Yankee sagacity, must be well acquainted with the every-day matters around him. He says there are three methods of making wine, in one of which, or by a union of more than one, all the wines are made. The leading fact of the first method is, that the juice is expressed (by treading in baskets) from the grapes as they come from the vines, and then fermented. The second method is when the fresh juice is boiled down before fermenting, and the third, when grapes and stems are partially dried in the sun before pressing. The boiling is partly to expell the water, and partly to purify the wine, by throwing the crude substances off in a scum. Wine made in the first method is equal to the weight of the grapes, and will only keep in the atmosphere of a few places, while that which is made in either. of the others, being reduced to one third the weight of the grapes, keeps well for years. Whatever may be the method of manufacture, fermentation and the presence of alcohol are common to them all. Indeed the local name for wine, includes leaven and fermentation; and when the people were inquired of for unfermented wines, they stared, and said they never heard of such a thing. None of the wines are enforced with extra brandy; none are drugged; none are termed intoxicating by way of distinction; for all are intoxicating— the best yielding one third of their quantity in brandy. The distillers say that a given quantity of grapes will produce the same quantity of brandy, whatever process may be adopted in making the wine. The Papal and Greek priests all say that wine for the sacrament must be pure and fermented, but not acetous. Here then are 'tyrosh, yayin,' and all the hard-labored theories about the unintoxicating wines of Palestine, dashed and demolished against the facts."

The next extract is as follows:

"From the Vermont Chronicle.

"EASTERN WINES-JUICE OF THE GRAPE.

"Extract of a letter from Rev. Daniel Ladd, Missionary to Cyprus, to Rev. T. A. Merrill, Ď. D., dated—

"CONSTANTINOPLE, APRIL 26th, 1841.

"I must now endeavor to answer your inquiries respecting the use and manufacture of wine in these countries. My first remark is, that all the facts which have come to my knowledge, on this subject, go to show that so far as the Bible sanctions the drinking of wine in any way, it always applies to fermented wine. Most of the facts which lead me to this opinion, will appear in my answers to your questions. You first inquire whether in Cyprus or elsewhere, to my knowledge, wine is ever boiled down so that it will not ferment, and will remain sweet for years? I answer, it is not done in Cyprus, nor did I ever hear of such a practice, except in modern discussions on this subject; and also the Talmud speaks of boiled wine, which a learned Jewish Rabbi of the second century approved for the burnt offering, because,' he said, 'it improves it. This boiled wine, I have no doubt, was made just as New England farmers make boiled cider, that is, by boiling the must before fermentation, not to a syrup, but so as to diminish the quantity considerably, and not prevent fermentation, just as in the case of boiled cider, and then the wine is sweeter and stronger; for the Rabbi says 'it improves it.' If the must is boiled to a syrup, so as to prevent fermentation, it is no longer wine, but a very different article. This article is very common in Cyprus, in Syria, in this place, and throughout the East, but it is a kind of molasses. Both ourselves and the missionary families here and at Beyroot, use it on our tables for such purposes as we would use West India molasses, or the molasses of the sugar-maple.

"It is made precisely as I have known some farmers in New England to make molasses from the cider of sweet apples, by taking it, as it runs from the press, and boiling it down to a thick syrup. Such molasses, I know, is not common in New England, but I have eaten it there, and it would be just as proper to call this molasses cider, as it is to call the syrup or molasses made by boiling down the juice of grapes, when first pressed out, by the name of wine. And here, I imagine, is one great cause of mistake and ambiguity in discussions on this subject. Mr. Delevan and others when referring to this syrup made of grape juice, or what in English I should call grape-molasses, frequently call it boiled wine, or wine. In these countries, people do not make this mistake; but call it by a different name from that which signifies wine. The Arabs of Syria call it dibs; the Greeks, epsema, and the Turks, petmez; neither of which words signify wine. It is one of the most common articles in these countries. Besides being used commonly as an article of food, it is drank with water just as farmers drink molasses and

MISS STRICKLAND'S QUEENS OF ENGLAND.

Mrs. E. E. BeardsleyART. IV. Lives of the Queens of England, from the Norman Conquest, with Anecdotes of their Courts. Now first published from official documents, private as well as public. By AGNES STRICKLAND. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard. 12 vols., 1848.

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FEW contributions to the literature of the present age will surpass in value these Lives of the Queens of England. Gathered as they have been from hitherto unpublished manuscripts, they bear upon their pages the charms of novelty, as well as the lineaments of truth. Thoroughly versed we may be in the habits, manners, and characters of the kings who have swayed the sceptre of England, from Egbert the Dane, to the late William of Hanover; yet, how faint are the glimpses we catch of those who shared their authority, and exercised over their minds all the influence of wives and companions! How many a cruel edict may have been suppressed, how many deeds of violence may have remained unaccomplished, through the interposition of one kind heart, the plication of a gentle voice like that with which the good queen Philippa sought and obtained the pardon of the six devoted men of Calais! Yet we will no longer quarrel for these sins of omission with Hume or the less eminent historians who have succeeded him, since in the interesting work before us, we see portrayed the virtues that most beautify and the vices that most deform the female character. We do not alone gaze upon the queen with her crowned head, regal attire, and almost unapproachable dignity; we are introduced behind the scenes, and behold the woman, speaking, acting, and animated by like passions with ourselves. "There is something," and we quote from the elegant preface to one of these volumes, "very peculiar in the views which we obtain of history, in tracing the lives of queens-consort. The great world is never entirely shut out. The chariot of state is always to be seen-the sound of its wheels is ever in our We observe that the thoughts, the feelings, the actions

ears.

* It may not be amiss to state, that the following Review of an English Authoress, is from the pen of an American Lady.-ED.