ed and done up in a neat and attractive form, which we hold to be no small recommendation. In this respect, "The School Library" of Messrs. Marsh, Capen, Lyon, & Webb compares advantageously with a similar series of books put forth by the Messrs. Harper of New York, a series, which, for the slovenly manner in which it is executed, is disgraceful to the house which publishes it, and to every school district which shall purchase it. There is not, so far as we have examined it, a single volume in Messrs. Harper's series, that is even tolerably printed. But the volumes before us are got up with much taste, and are, in respect of dress and appearance, all that we should wish them to be.

We have before us now ten volumes of the principal series. They are all old works, or at least works previously published, and which were already accessible to such school districts as wished them. The first volume is Washington Irving's Life of Columbus, abridged by the author. Our objection to this volume is, that it is an abridgment, and that it is published under the sanction of the Board of Education. dislike abridgments, and for a Board of Education to presume to sanction one of Washington Irving's works, is a piece of impertinence we cannot easily overlook.

We

Volumes II. and III. comprise "Paley's Natural Theology, with additions, from Lord Brougham and Sir Charles Bell, a Life and Portrait of the Author, with numerous other illustrations. The whole newly arranged and adapted to the School Library, by Elisha Bartlett, M. D." Here again is the same impertinence on the part of the Board. On the frontispiece of each volume, we read;

6

"This volume is sanctioned by the Board of Education of the State of Massachusetts, as one of the series entitled The School Library,' published by Marsh, Capen, Lyon, & Webb. EDWARD EVERETT,

GEORGE HULL,

EMERSON DAVIS,

EDMUND DWIGHT,

GEORGE PUTNAM,

ROBERT RANTOUL, Jr.

THOMAS ROBBINS,

JARED SPARKS,

CHARLES HUDSON,

GEORGE N. BRIGGS."

How much better known to the American people are George Hull, Emerson Davis, Thomas Robbins, George Putnam, Edmund Dwight, Charles Hudson, George N. Briggs, than Paley, Sir Charles Bell, and Lord Brougham? Are our people so ignorant of English Literature, that such a work as this needs the sanction of a Board, all of whom, with a couple of exceptions, are unknown even to our own literature? Where was the modesty of these men; or their respect for the intelligence of the community? As it concerns the work itself here put forth, we have not much to say. The additions, from Lord Brougham and Sir Charles Bell, we have but cursorily examined. The original work of Paley is a most excellent work to circulate, if we wish to make atheists. As a demonstration of the existence of God, it is worse than valueless. It assumes in the outset the very point the atheist wants proved, and consequently its whole reasoning is vitiated.

Volumes IV., V., and VI. are made up of selections from Sparks's Biography of eminent individuals. These, of course, the Board could not refuse to sanction; for Mr. Sparks is a member of it, and his colleagues could not be so discourteous to him as to refuse their sanction to one of his own publications. But saving the imprimatur of the Board, the volumes. are worthy of a place in a School Library.

Volumes VII., VIII., IX., and X. are entitled "Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons; illustrating the Perfections of God in the Phenomena of the Year. By the Rev. Henry Duncan, D. D., Ruthwell, Scotland. With important additions and some modifications to adapt it to AMERICAN READERS, by Rev. F. W. P. Green

wood, D. D." Here the impertinence of the Board is not so great. The whole weight of its authority is necessary to bring this work into notice, and will after all be insufficient, we apprehend, to induce the people to read it. It is a miserable concern, professedly religious, but really skeptical in its philosophy and tendency. Grant me the premises which the author everywhere assumes, and I will demonstrate the absurdity of every religious emotion and belief. How long shall men try to form to themselves a God out of matter? When will they learn that the revelation of God is to the reason, the soul, not to the senses?

But, although we absolve the Board of the sin of impertinence, in sanctioning these volumes, we cannot so easily acquit the American Editor. We know little of Dr. Greenwood; but be he who or what he may, we cannot excuse him for presuming to alter another man's works. In a literary sense we hold it an unpardonable sin to alter, abridge, or mutilate another man's productions. The author has a right to have his works published, if they are published at all, as he himself wrote them, and wished them to go forth to the world, and no man should be allowed the freedom of the republic of letters, who does not respect this right.

But where are the professions of the Board to admit nothing of a sectarian character into their publications? Will they pretend that these volumes, with all the alterations Dr. Greenwood has sacrilegiously made, are not sectarian? Are they not crammed and overflowing with the peculiar doctrines and sentiments of the orthodox school? This is no objection to the book in our eyes, but it exhibits, in a striking manner, the reliance we may place on the declarations of the Board.

But the metaphysics which lie at the bottom of these volumes, and of those of Paley, are in our judgment false and mischievous; precisely the metaphysics which leave to religion no rational foundation, and to

faith in general no solid basis. We confess that we are by no means pleased to see these works placed in the hands of youth. The Board, we presume, were unconscious of the actual character of these works, and had no suspicion of the false metaphysics on which they are based. The individuals composing the Board are very worthy men, but we trust that we may without offence question their philosophical insight or attainments. They are men of facts, of detail, of routine, not men of ideas, philosophers, who read the human soul, and see all opinions in the light of the principles which generate them.

We

But we have said enough by way of censure. wish to see Education promoted. We are willing to live and die in its sacred cause; but we agree with the present Chief Magistrate of this Commonwealth, that so far as our common schools are concerned, in order to promote it, "the responsibility of their management should rest upon the inhabitants of the towns." The State, either immediately, or mediately, through boards and committees, should interfere as little as possible. To the inhabitants of the towns, or rather of school districts, we would leave the management of the school and the selection of its library undictated to, and uninfluenced by the extra-official sanctions and recommendations of a Board of Educa

tion.

EDITOR.

ART. VII. Answer of the Whig Members of the Legislature of Massachusetts, constituting a Majority of both Branches, to the Address of His Excellency, Marcus Morton, delivered in the Convention of the two Houses, Jan. 22, 1840. Boston: Perkins & Marvin. 1840.

THE election of a Democratic Governor of the ancient Commonwealth of Massachusetts has given our whig friends more trouble, and caused them more serious alarm for their future political existence, than any other event which has lately occurred. They have seemed to themselves to see in it the part of a man's hand, writing upon the walls of their palace, that they are weighed in the balance and found wanting, and that their dominion is taken from them, and given to another.

The Inaugural Address of this Democratic Governor has also caused them much alarm. It has been welcomed by the democracy of the Union, as a clear, able, and faithful exposition of democratic principles and measures, and is evidently making a deep impression on the citizens of this Commonwealth. It does not suit the whigs, because it advocates doctrines and measures which must be approved by the great body of the American people, as soon as they are seen and understood. In putting it forth, Governor Morton has given serious offence to the whigs. He has offended them by showing that he adheres firmly to democratic principles; perhaps still more, by showing that he has principles to adhere to.

In all communities there are those, who have a sort of prescriptive right to be offended whenever the truth is told, or just and equal legislation is advocated with earnestness and ability. We do not, therefore, blame our whig friends for taking offence at Governor Morton's Address; we are only sorry that they have not been able to maintain some dignity in their wrath, and some little respect for the ordinary decencies of