one here not easily answered. The contract is the guarantee against war — admitted; but where is the guarantee against the breach of this contract? If treaties of peace, as at present made, be now broken, why not these treaties providing against the breach of peace? We are thus, as it seems to us, thrown back again upon "public opinion" as our final guarantee, and therein, rightly regulated, would seem to lie, as we think, society's only permanent security for peace. Out of what elements that public opinion against war is to be generated, is a wider and deeper question; but then we think it the great practical question, too, for the apostles of peace to look into. For ourselves, to our minds it is clear that such "blessed consummation" is to be looked for only under two conditions. First, that the national mind shall have been rightly instructed in those sound principles of social and political economy which demonstrate the folly, the expensiveness, the ruinous results of war, even of those wars which politicians call triumphant; and not only of actual war, but of those warlike expenditures, which the expectation of war makes to be a never-ceasing tax upon every community, under the strange misnomer of a peace establishment. Let man but see how great this war expenditure is, even in the miscalled time of peace exceeding, as it now actually does in our own government, all other expenditures four and fivefold — sufficient, therefore, at the present moment, not only to meet the interest of all our state debts, but to create a sinking fund that would pay off the principal also, in less than twenty years let the eco

nomical inquirer, we say, but see this demonstrated to him in "figures that cannot lie," and he, we think, will stand prepared with Juba to cry out

My thoughts, I must confess, are turned to peace."

But this financial calculation, unfortunately, is not the only corrective element needed to make men "beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks." Men may see their interest and yet follow their passions. "Whence," saith the Apostle, "come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence even from the lusts that war in your members?" Men, therefore, must be Christians as well as economists, before the demon of war can be fully exorcised from among the nations. The love of peace must find its way into the heart, and a spiritual hate of war, with its cruelties, its bloodshed, its sorrows, and its crimes, but above all, an abiding sense of our responsibility to the God of peace must work within us, touching the exercise of whatever influence we may possess, as individuals or citizens, to advance and secure its reign. This, then, we hold to be the deep element of peace among the nations of the earth; the advancing influence, we mean, of the gospel of peace over them; and in proportion as we see that advance, shall we look confidently for that

1842.]

Cogswell's Religious Keepsake.

495

millenium, too, upon earth, "When the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and man shall not learn war any more." Until then, we shall have 66 wars and rumors of wars." In assigning to the religious element, however, the first place, we are by no means disposed to deny a second, and a high one, and probably first, in order of time, to the dissemination of that sound economical knowledge of which we have already spoken, and which demonstrates war to be "folly" as well as "sin.' In accordance with this view we would suggest to Mr. Jay the enrichment of a second edition of his work (to which we confidently look) with ampler statistics than he has here given of war expenditure, both actual and preparatory, arranged in distinct tables, for series of years and in connection with various countries - our own more especially-contrasting, at the same time, such wasteful or wicked disbursements of national treasure with contemporary peaceful ones, and again, with what might have been commanded from the same under other forms of its employment; as, for instance, let the American citizen see, in one column, the millions that have been wasted annually for ten years past on the Florida war; in a parallel one, contemporary peace expenditure, and in a third, an estimate of what the same money might have accomplished in varied works of peace and honest industry; or, to take a case from France, let him show how far the six hundred millions of francs, now expending for the fortifications of Paris, would go towards supplying France with rail-roads or school-houses-how many hundred thousand acres it would drain and make productive in "Les Landes"-how many poor peasants it would feed and make comfortable for life - how many ignorant it would educate-how many, now idle and vicious, it would furnish the means of reclaiming and setting to work. But we must have done. The subject is one too tempting for a bare notice to enter upon, and we conclude abruptly, with commending both the subject and the work to the favorable attention of all well-wishers to their country and to the best interests of the human race.

5. Religious Keepsake. Discourses intended as a Keepsake for the Family and Friends of the Author. By JONATHAN COGSWELL, D.D., Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the Theological Institute of Connecticut. Hartford: 1842. E. Geer. 8vo.

pp. 201.

FROM the above title page we stood in doubt whether the work before us were technically "published" or not, or rather, as it would seem, intended but for family circulation. On opening the

volume, our doubts were cleared. The language of the preface settled it

"The following discourses," it observes, "delivered at different times, were not written with the most distant thought of their publication; nor is it for this purpose they are now sent to the press. The author, feeling that his life is uncertain, and that he may afford a gratification to his family and friends by leaving, when he is gone, some memorial of his faith, has caused them to be printed, that they may be more easily read and more conveniently distributed. And it is his sincere desire and prayer, that God may make them instrumental of good, not only to those for whom they are especially intended, but to all who may read

them.

"January 1, 1842."

"Printed, not published," are words not common in our country, and it were well if, in all cases, either here or elsewhere, the work and the motive were equally commendable with the one before us. The typographical execution of the volume, too, is such as does. credit to the press of Hartford, and corresponds well with the obvious destination of the book—that of a new years' gift, on the part of the author, to a large circle of friends and relatives. Touching such a work, we feel ourselves neither called on nor justified in entering critically on its merits. Thus much, however, we would say, that the discourses are strongly marked, many of them, by original thinking, and all of them, by a deep vein of personal piety. Among those of most interest, we would note Discourse, III., on "The Three Dispensations," and IX., on "The Resurrection." We do not, of course, vouch for all the theological doctrines of the author. In so far as they are those of Calvin, we are not of accord with him; but still, in this day of backsliding, we are willing to overlook a little old-fashioned Calvinism for the sake of soundness and clearness on the still more fundamental questions of the reed of revelation, the atonement and the Trinity. It is something creditable, we say, in this arrogant age, for a man even to profess "stare super antiquas vias," even though he may misunderstand that antiquity. It is a sound principle, for it goes to correct its own errors, and we fear not for any theologian's eventful soundness in the faith who is both willing and competent to bring his opinions to that

test.

Among the views well put, in these discourses, is the priority of rank and power assigned in them to the internal over the external evidences of revelation. We quote a passage from the first discourse as a favorable specimen of both the style and sentiments of the author.

"Should any of you, my hearers, be asked the question, why do you believe that the scriptures were given by inspiration of God: it will be sufficient for you to answer, they describe all my thoughts and feelings, hopes and fears, joys and sorrows require only what my conscience approves, and prohibit only what my conscience condemns. They make known just such a Saviour as I need, and whom, by happy experience, I have found to be the power of God and the wisdom of God unto my salvation."--p. 25.

1842.]

Mott's Travels in Europe and the East.

497

We cannot, however, in closing, but set this, the author's own better sense and judgment in thus resting revelation on its accordance with man's inward reason, against his acquired dogmatic teaching, in the same discourses in which, with Calvin, he tramples reason under foot. "The deductions of natural reason," is his suicidal proposition, "are exactly contrary to the laws of Christianity." That is to say, with Austin, "Credo quia impossibile est." But, as before said, we hold such error to be but skin-deep, in Dr. Cogswell - neutralized, when it passes beyond the surface, by the Christianity of a good heart and a clear head,

6. Travels in Europe and the East, embracing Observations made during a Tour through Great Britain, France, etc., in the years 1834-1841. BY VALENTINE Mott, M. D. New York: 1842. Harper and Brothers. 8vo. pp. 452.

If we could use the critical pen as delicately and as adroitly as the author of this volume of travels uses the surgical knife, we would perform a few neat operations upon it, that would essentially benefit its constitution, and at the cost of as little pain to the patient as he is known to inflict in amputating a limb. But we entertain too great a respect for this eminent surgeon, and too high an admiration for his personal character, to be willing to subject him to our lacerations, for the very venial error of having published a book unworthy of his distinguished reputation, and we prefer risking the loss of our credit as critics to doing violence to our feelings as men. The appearance of the work is, however, too important a circumstance, in the history of our quarterly literature, to be allowed to pass wholly unnoticed; and as, from what we have said, we might be understood to have pronounced a sweeping condemnation of it, which was not intended, justice to ourselves, as well as the author, requires us to show the contrary, by commending where we have found cause. It is fortunate for a professional man, when enfeebled by long continued labors, to be enabled, by the fruits of a successful practice, to recruit his health and spirits by foreign travel, and it is certainly laudable for such a traveller to communicate to the public the results of his observations in other lands. This Dr. Mott has done, so far as his profession is concerned, in a manner that entitles him to the commendation and gratitude of every one. His remarks on the distinctive characters of the several local climates of southern Europe, and their adaptation to the relief or the restoration of suffering invalids, evince, for the most part, correct observation and soundness of judgment. The same may be said of 63

NO. XX.-VOL. X.

his observations on local diseases; thus the goitre of Switzerland is considered by him as mainly, if not wholly, attributable to the cold and sepulchral dampness of low valley regions, certainly the most tenable of the numerous assigned causes for explaining the origin of this singular disorder. The doctor never forgets his profession, and in every country which he visits he is chiefly solicitous about the condition of his favorite art; and this constitutes so prominent a merit of his volume, that we could wish it had been wholly devoted to it. It is gratifying to American pride, to see how extensively his reputation had preceded him, which he does not fail to record with marked and laudable self-gratulation. It is unreasonable, we confess, to expect that the lighter labors of his pen should be of equal value with such as were connected with the knowledge which he had acquired by early study and matured by long practice. Travelling, and writing one's travels, are mere amusements for which the doctor's previous professional life did not particularly fit him, but he is no indifferent observer of what is most striking and curious. Of Greece-immortal, classic Greece-he is an enthusiastic and ardent admirer, and, by the aid of Mr. Pittakys, he has made out quite a learned archaiological account of its beautiful ruins. Of living Greece he has drawn a still more lively picture. The scene in Athens, at the queen's drawing-room, is a very delightful one; but we are sorry that the doctor declined waltzing with her majesty, we fear it left an unfavorable impression on her mind as to our progress in civilization. The account of young Miss Bozzaris is also particularly interesting, from the double association with her father and our friend Halleck, to whose axgoaua he will owe more of his immortality than to his own deeds of valor. We think, however, that the doctor should have made known the beautiful Greek girl's admiration of the poet in a more private way this public communication of it may cause some heart-burnings at home.

The pleasantest circumstance connected with the book is the expression of the author's delight on his safe return to his native land, with restored health and renovated spirits, after so extensive a tour and so long an absence from it. We delight to find that he did not come back, like many of our countrymen, to scorn the land which gave him birth, and imbitter his life and destroy his usefulness by unavailing regrets for a foreign one. We rejoice, too, that he is devoting himself with renewed vigor to his noble art, in which, by common consent, he stands without a superior, and in which he is able to do so much to relieve human suffering. We most sincerely wish that his valuable life may be long preserved to delight his friends, and do good to his fellow citizens generally.