general outline and most characteristic features, were in full force during the period of disorganization, known as the time of the Judges; that this, indeed, was the period of the most intense religious spirit and strongly marked national life; and that the monarchy rather diluted and flattened down what it seems to us more likely was in fact the peculiar creation of a later age. Such institutions, for example, as the Levitical priesthood, the Sabbatical year, and the year of Jubilee, seem to belong more naturally to the time of the full-grown monarchy, or to the rule of priests which succeeded the Captivity, rather than to that early period of precarious and nomadic life. But in the discussion of these or any similar questions, the ground of discussion must be largely assumed on either side; and no man certainly is more competent than he to take his ground unchallenged. So in the interpretation of many particular events, and judgment of certain characters, and especially in the intelligent comprehension of the political circumstances of the state, we rate Newman's "Hebrew Monarchy" before the present work; but with the qualification, that, for a right comprehension of the spirit of the narrative, to stand truly en rapport with the life of that age and race, we must always come first-hand to Ewald.

His work is divided into three portions, besides the "Anhang," or Appendix on the Hebrew Institutions, which constitutes the intercalary third volume. Of these portions, the first is the "Theocracy," commencing with the sojourn in Egypt, and closing with the Judges. This includes the organizing of the national institutions under Moses, with his profound influence on the character and history of the people, the conquest and settlement in Canaan, the extraordinary struggles that finally established the nation's independence, and the remarkable development of national character and religious spirit that became so effective in the hands of Samuel. The second is the Monarchy, or "Regal Theocracy," commencing with Saul and ending with the Captivity. The third is the "Hierarchy," comprising the history of the Captivity, the return of the "Jewish Puritans" to Palestine, and the later struggles to revive the long-lost life of Israel, till the last germs of nationality are finally absorbed in the spreading circle of Roman conquest,- till the

religious mission that consecrated it from the earliest time is about to be consummated and merged in the divine life, which was manifested in the fulness of time in Christ.

J. H. A.

ART. II. ELIOT'S LECTURES TO YOUNG WOMEN.*

Ir may seem quite unnecessary, at this day, to urge upon young women the perusal of a work sent forth expressly for their benefit, when the abundance of such publications seems to make it impossible for them to escape their influence. From the days when the sensible, excellent, dull letters of Mrs. Chapone were to be conned diligently by all young girls as a matter of course, to the present, there has been no scarcity of appeals to this important portion of the human race, from older and wiser heads, in forms didactic, practical, or lively. Even the romance and the novel come with the specious plea upon their fronts of presenting moral instruction in winning forms. They are to be understood as "Sermons for Young Ladies," in disguise; a disguise sometimes quite impenetrable, we must confess.

The very profusion of these graver works has a tendency to defeat their object. No one can read half of them; probably few read many. It is a wearisome kind of reading to those who most need it, and therefore it is desirable that a careful selection should be made. Almost all of us have influence enough with the young females about us, to persuade them to undertake at least the perusal of one serious book, written for their special benefit; and if we ever hope to have them read another, or if we desire that the one should be actually read through with some good result, we must exercise no small discrimination.

For this reason we have undertaken to recommend the Lectures of Mr. Eliot to the class for whom they were written. We have been examining publications of this

* Lectures to Young Women, delivered in the Church of the Messiah. By WILLIAM G. ELIOT, JR. St. Louis, Mo. 1853. 16mo. pp. 124.

description these many years, in order to find the most unexceptionable, one which we could hopefully put into the hands of the greatest variety of individuals. We have found many that had but a single fault. They were too dull. The young girl, in a fit of good resolutions, warmed by the earnest appeal, perhaps, of some religious friend or some true sermon, sits down resolutely to the task of reading a book, which is to be second only to the Bible in teaching her how to become what she ought to be. But the style is so uninviting and heavy, the truisms are so bare, the appeals to that most active part of her nature, the imagination, so few, the want of sympathy with her experiences so evident, and the whole treatise is so void of interest to her unregenerate heart, that, yawning and weary, she lays it aside, returns to it reluctantly at more and more distant intervals, and never finishes it. Probably she thinks thenceforward of all treatises for young women with repugnance. Unless her heart has already had some experimental knowledge of its need of religious instruction, has undergone some serious change from its natural indifference or frivolity, she cannot read such a book; yet it is to effect that change precisely that we desire to have her read it.

To be too long and dull is the common fault of works written for this most important object. In order to arrest the attention of the airy, gay creatures, whose besetting sin is that they hate thought, we require no ordinary means. They must be shot upon the wing; and light, swift, and keen must be the arrow that brings them down. We have found books, however, against which the charge of dulness could not be brought. There was a quaintness, a vivacity, or earnestness, in the style, which might secure perusal; but there were other reasons why we did not desire that they should be read. Some were too worldly in their character. The author walked upon too low a level. He would have led his pupils along life's path very carefully, without an apparent misstep, showing them distinctly the hedge on one side and the ditch on the other, but never raising their eyes to the heights above, whither the path should lead. He would train their feet, but cultivate no wings. He would carry them respectably through the world, but not gloriously above it, as every woman may live, whatever be her sta

tion. We have read a spirited, clever work, conscientiously meant to aid young women in self-culture, in which one motive appealed to repeatedly was the desire to please; not to please God, but to please man and woman, as if this were not precisely the quicksand that most needs a glowing beacon before it. Other treatises have a taint of vulgarity. Others are merely superficial. Others are sectarian, or ultra on certain points, or loose on certain points. All have much that is good, but in most the goodness is neutralized by being held in solution in that unpalatable element, dulness, or made inefficient by some unfortunate ingredient. The golden little "Legacy" of Dr. Gregory was good, but we want soinething more thorough; and we have thought that this want would be felt more decidedly than ever, since another kindred deficiency has lately been supplied.

Something which is found plentifully among other Christian denominations, quite unlike sermons and other direct and didactic appeals, something which by the charm of personal sympathies may win young and giddy women to a desire of genuine womanly excellence, thus teaching them the value of the Bible and religious helps, and tempting them to read with a real interest the graver works intended for their benefit, has long been wanting in our own denomination. That something was the true, unembellished Life of a Christian woman; a picture to be copied, presenting somewhat apparently more imitable than the superhuman excellence of our great exemplar, Christ.

But

Such a model woman has lived among us. Often as we lamented the deficiency of such a book to put into the hands of the tempted and incomplete beings around us, looking upon them with a yearning compassion and upon her with a reverend love, we have thought," Will it ever be possible to set her before them?" It seemed not. She was emphatically a private woman. "with God all things are possible." He rounds the pure pearl under the tossing sea, and permits it to rejoice human sight with its beauty. From the holy seclusion of domestic life, its beautiful humility all unsoiled by exposure to the atmosphere, He has brought forth that lovely character to be studied and copied by thousands, who will be moved by that contemplation into aspiration

and effort. She who so appropriately bore the sweet and holy name of " Mary " was taken from earth, not only that she might receive her reward and work in a happier sphere, but that the light of her example might be let forth on a wider circle below; and the hearts of those who justly claimed it as their legacy were moved to permit its diffusion. Her published letters and it is to this part of the work alone that we refer evince that she neglected not in her youth to feed her virtues with wholesome reading: and we have heard her lament the difficulty of finding such modern works as would attract while they elevated and sobered those who loved only the lightest reading; little dreaming in what way she would herself come to the rescue. We believe that most young women, after perusing Mrs. Ware's letters, will be impelled with a new interest to the Bible; and then they will seek small practical works, such as Henry Ware's invaluable treatise "On the Formation of the Christian Character." But many will still need something more peculiarly adapted to their own situations, temptations, and wants as women. Whatever may be true of the equal rights of the sexes, it is certain that their wants are separate and different. To this class we know of no book which we can recommend so unhesitatingly as this of Mr. Eliot. A young woman, filled with a new consciousness that she is not leading such a life as she should, will naturally seek every possible aid in ascer taining her duties, and learning how she can discharge them; and as reading will be among the most obvious and ready external helps, we urge upon her the careful perusal of these Lectures.

The work consists of six discourses, addressed to the Young Women of his own society. The first is an appeal to his hearers, which could not but have secured their attention to the coming "expression of well-known truths in a plain and simple manner." The second treats of "Home"; the third of "Duties"; the fourth of “ Education"; the fifth of "Follies"; the sixth of "Woman's Mission."

Unpromisingly hackneyed topics, certainly, and no one could be more sensible of this untoward fact than Mr. Eliot. He is not likely to make the mistake of the narrow-minded, who work an old, exhausted mine without