This is an able and comprehensive work, and may be consulted with confidence by persons who wish to inquire concerning the history, scenery, antiquities, topography, and present condition of Italy. The author is, perhaps, less profound than he would have been if he had contemplated a more voluminous treatise. For all purposes, however, of general reference, or as a guide to more detailed inquiries, his volumes may be consulted with advantage. The account of the social, religious and political revolutions of the ancient and modern Italians, and the history of the rise and progress of the arts and literature in Italy, constitute two of its most valuable divisions.
These volumes form Nos. 151, 152 and 153 of the Family Library, and are published in the usual style of that excellent series. Carey & Hart: Philadelphia.
A Discourse on Matters pertaining to Religion; by Theodore Parker, Minister of the Second Church in Roxburgh, Massachusetts. Pp. 505, 8vo. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown. 1842.
This is a bold and eloquent attack on the doctrines of the Bible, by one who avows himself to be a Christian minister, and is ordained and settled over a religious congregation. Some of the readers of Mr. Parker’s “Discourse” who are unacquainted with the writings of the German rationalists, may fancy that he is a man of deep research and profound scholarship; but there is little danger that an intelligent student in theology will be so deceived. The work embraces the substance of five lectures, delivered in Boston during the last autumn. The author denies the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, the divinity of Jesus Christ, and most of the other ideas of what he terms the “popular theology.” We leave him and his labors to the critics of the Christian churches.
Masterman Ready, or, the Wreck of the Pacific. Written for Young People. By Captain Marryat, R. N. Second Series. One vol., 18mo. New York: D. Appleton & Co.
This is a sequel to the entertaining volume published under the same title last year. Though “Masterman Ready” is an entertaining story, it is far from being equal in any respect, save its freedom from the coarser kind of jests, to “Peter Simple,” “Jacob Faithful,” or the other early works of the author.
Means and Ends, or Self-training. By the author of Redwood, Hope Leslie, Home, Poor Rich Man, &c., &c. Second edition. One vol. Harper & Brothers: New York.