y of a Penitent. A Guide for the Inquiring,
in a Commentary on the One Hundred and Thirtieth Psalm.
By George W. Bethune, D.D., Minister of the Third
Reformed Dutch Church, Philadelphia. Henry Perkins, 142
Chestnut Street._

This work, which is beautifully dedicated to Dr. Alexander, is written
with much of the characteristic force and fervor of its author, and
with more than his ordinary research and elaboration. He informs us
that his purpose has been to help the inquiring soul and young
Christian with counsel taken immediately from the unerring word: he
has therefore studied conformity to scripture, rather than novelty of
thought, and plainness more than grace of style. Yet there is in this
volume much of the author's usual boldness of originality and peculiar
felicity of expression. Our readers have been made acquainted with the
high merits of Dr. Bethune as a poet, by his contributions to
"Graham;" but highly as we appreciate his verse, there is a
directness, an originality, an old-fashioned power in his prose which
we prefer, and which we think place him in the first class of American
writers. On subjects like that treated in the volume before us, his
whole heart and mind seem to be poured into his pages; and in their
perusal we doubt whether most to admire the divine or the rhetorician.

_Keble's Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the
Sundays and Holidays throughout the Year. Philadelphia:
Geo. S. Appleton. 148 Chestnut Street._

This beautiful volume is printed from the thirty-first London edition.
Its merits are so well and universally known and appreciated that to
review it would, to our readers, be tedious as a twice told tale.
Suffice it to say, that its object is to bring the thoughts and
feelings of worshipers into more entire unison with those recommended
and exemplified in the Prayer Book. The poetry of this volume is often
even worthy the exalted subjects of which it treats, and is never
unworthy them. Its extraordinary popularity is the best evidence of
its merit; for poetry is never generally and permanently popular
without real merit.

Transcriber's Note:

1. page 195--removed extra quote at end of paragraph 'boot-maker,
landlady, and others?'

2. page 195--removed repeated word 'five'

3. page 198--changed comma to period at end of sentence 'knock the
fort to pieces'

4. page 200--corrected typo 'litle' to 'little' in stanza beginning