imitation, and also, happily for the reader, without any of that decadence into folly which too often characterises the followers of this class of poetry. He is simple and unconstrained, without flatness or affectation, and sustains his flight, low and short, as it must be pronounced, with a firm and continuous spirit. After reading every poem, we do not know that we can rank him amongst the true poets. They are all interesting, and are all marked with purity of taste and vigour of thought and feeling, but we doubt if they have in them the manifestation of the "faculty divine." "The Poetess," and "The Old Man's Young Wife," come nearest to the standard he himself looks to; but we nowhere find breaking through the refined and "well turned lines," the gleams of mingled imagery and feeling which form "the inspiration of the god"-nothing like what he himself incorporates from Tennyson.

"And much I mused on legends quaint and old,
Which whilom won the hearts of all on earth
Towards their brightness, even as flame draws air;
But had their being in the heart of man,

As air is the life of flame

In the present dearth, however, of any grand manifestations of poetry, and in the abundance of mawkish imitation and sentimentality, we welcome Mr. Purchas, and wish him well on his pilgrimage.

THE USE OF THE BODY IN RELATION TO THE MIND.

MOORE, M.D. Longman.

By GEORGE

WE feel a prepossession that in mingling together, or, in fact, attempting to define what cannot be clearly and definitely shown to be incontrovertible, we act in opposition to the wisest policy. We know that the body is subservient to the will; we know that the nervous system is the vehicle of sensation; but beyond this we are in utter darkness. We cannot discover how mind acts upon matter unless we can make it visible or tangible in some form, unless we know its nature. We are acquainted with the instrument and its workmanship, but of the moving power we know nothing. The physical and spiritual worlds may be in perpetual connexion, but the one partakes not at all in the nature of the other. Here then lies the difficulty in a work like the present, for what is truly demonstrated is mingled with conjecture in such a manner, that they become confounded together. The interpretation put upon the known and visible results of the existing system which it pleased the Supreme Being to establish in the mental and material world, rather in accordance with this imaginative speculation or predisposition than any valid deductions from premises acknowledged and established, casts over the whole an air of uncertainty not all calculated to promote the ends of truth.

There is much good writing and interesting reflection in this work it shows, too, that the author is endowed with sound professional knowledge, but there are many things to which it is difficult to yield approval. The blending together religious and scientific topics, until one seems lost in the other, is not agreeable to good taste, many of the inferences are untenable, and we feel on the perusal how much more desirable it is that we should see everything under its proper aspect. There is an attempt to assume a great many things which may be justly questioned, particularly in a religious point of view, arising out of an incongruity inevitable in a work upon the present plan. That the author is imaginative and partial in some respect to the fanciful, is plain from his allusions in regard to mesmerism and to phrenology, qualified indeed, but sufficient to show how the inclination points. This tendency will recommend this book to the numerous class of readers who judge from first impressions. We should be inclined to think it would have an extensive circulation if only on this account, knowing that it is the way of the many to take their notions from impressions. There is good writing and much knowledge of his subject displayed by the author. He seems penetrated with a true sense of religion in his own view of that great solace of humanity, and we doubt not he is in earnest in all he says. His work is wrought out of the truism universally acknowledged, that mind influences body, although he does not inform us, on the other hand, to what extent the body influences mind, nor to what an amazing degree the reciprocal action is undoubtedly carried, nor how far body and mind may neutralise each other. Some of the chapters are highly interesting, the style being uniformly that of a scholar, the intention evidently good, the work calculated to dispose to reflection every thinking mind; yet are we of opinion, as we have already observed, that there is a want of demonstration and an indefiniteness perhaps inseparable from such an undertaking, and ingrained in the complex nature of a subject which it is no doubt a merit to have treated so well. There are indeed some strong facts deducible by analogies which are set forth by Dr. Moore. He is particularly just when speaking of the effect of love and kindness in stirring the soul to strong and enduring effort; that the rod does not impart principles like gentle truth. The Brougham-sustained workhouse system-we believe his lordship is the most staunch advocate of all objectionable things belonging to it-is deeply involved in the quotation with which we must conclude. It is only one of many cases, we have no doubt, occurring often under a system where profligacy and virtue are placed in an equal companionship. Imagine a brother and sister born of better times left orphans, "with none to love but each other, and then singly exposed to the ruffianism of matured vice in every form which the crowded union house can afford, naturally learning to hate all that cold kind of charity which they witness; and usually finding thieves and prostitues with more heart, and, perhaps, less hypocrisy than their public guardians, they are readily won to side with those

outcasts against their better knowledge, and every now and then astonish us by precocious facts of hardy viciousness." Thus it is that while erecting penitentiaries for criminals on one hand, we multiply inmates for them with the other. Under what head in the category of our numerous hypocrisies should this glaring mischief range?

PROGRESSION BY ANTAGONISM, a Theory involving Considerations touching the present Position, Duties, and Destiny of Great Britain. By Lord Lindsay. Murray.

WE have here a very imaginative theory indeed; but the best attempt to look into the future is like looking down a dark well, which may contain treasure or mephitic air, both equally beyond the power of vision. Lord Lindsay imagines that he has discovered, in this his theory of "Progression by Antagonism," a sound principle in which slumbers in embryo the future destiny of his country. His lordship states that he has a conviction of its general correctness, though it may contain some inaccuracies. He contends that the forward movement produced by antagonism is a general law of the moral government of God, in the individual and universal man, as well as in other orders of responsible beings. He proceeds to make his ideas good by a diagram or chart, serving as a frontispiece, which must be seen to be comprehended, and by showing the opponent principles in the individual man, introduced by the fall and the events that more immediately succeeded it. He then proceeds to that analysis of human nature, which it is the end of the book more immediately to develop. The universal man represents human nature in the aggregate from childhood to maturity. The world is divided into three grand dispensations, which are explained in an historical narrative relative to many nations of ancient times. Things go by antagonisms-God is unity and also multiplicity-We are saved by works, but also by faith-catholicism and monarchy are the offspring of imagination, protestantism and democracy trace their genealogy from reason. In English politics, for example, there are the Norman Tories, and Saxon Whigs, the one high church, expressing themselves in high church latinised English, the other in low, are antagonists; the one congregating in the country, the other in towns. In this way his lordship sees two contending elements in all sublunary things. Signs of conflicts he observes approaching upon this principle-but we must refer to the book itself for a full statement of a theory possessed of a good deal of ingenuity, and exhibiting in our opinion more learning and thinking on the part of the noble author than of sound philosophy. In all events, if his lordship's theory be but a crotchet, it displays thought and labour deserving an attentive perusal, and shows that he is in the habit of reflecting upon events, which seem not only in his own opinion but in that of many others, to be progressing towards a termination that baffles conjecture.

FEVER PHYSIOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED; CONSIDERATIONS ON YELLOW FEVER TYPHUS FEVER, PLAGUE, CHOLERA, AND SEA SCURVY, &c. By DAVID MC CONNELL REED, Esq. Churchill.

THE present work is designed, its professional author tells us, to account to his own satisfaction for the phenomena of fever, and to settle with himself its proper mode of treatment. Undoubtedly the information acquired upon the spot where the diseases treated of are occurring, gives an overwhelming advantage in writing upon them, and this we were naturally led to expect from the present work; but we cannot say we find anything very novel unfolded in its pages. The class of disorders the author notices he deems dependent on a deficiency of oxygen in the blood, and recommends medicines which have a tendency to counteract that state. Bleeding he thinks in general of very questionable use; but there is no actual proof given of any decided advantage in the treatment recommended by well-vouched cases, in which, out of a given number, more than the customary ratio of restorations were effected.

A PRACTICAL MANUAL OF ELOCUTION; embracing Voice and Gesture. Designed for Schools, Academies, and Colleges, as well as for Private Teachers. By MERRIT CALDWELL, A.M., Philadelphia. Soreis and Ball. THIS is an American publication, in which much pains have been taken to meet the object intended. It is evidently the result of practical knowledge. The directions respecting the conduct of the voice are good, and we see no reason to doubt of their efficiency where there is natural aptitude. There are neat wood illustrations of the most advantageous attitudes for a speaker, and the reverse; while cadence is explained by a scale resembling that of music. The work is ingenious and useful, but the continued advance of the natural over the artificial style renders some portion of it superfluous.

LETTERS FROM MADRAS. BY A LADY. Murray's Home and Colonial Library. Murray.

THIS is a very pleasing work, written with great ease, full of vivacity, and so far from being censurable for a "colloquial familiarity of style,' as the introduction would seem to imply, that this very style constitutes a great part of the charm felt upon its perusal. These letters are written by a young married lady, who accompanied her husband to Madras several years ago. She evidently possesses considerable power in catching those salient points observable in manners, which her new locality among a strange people furnished in abundance. She depicts life accurately, while the harmless humour of her descriptions renders them exceedingly entertaining as well as instructive to the reader.

Her husband was employed in a judicial capacity, first at Rajamundry, from whence he was afterwards removed to Chittoor.

It must not be imagined that the lady writer of these letters is like lady residents in general who are domiciled in India. She enters upon her duties, evidently with a just sense of what is due to her position. She is no exclusive in faith or sociality. She is evidently a good and accomplished mother, and, premising these things, her heartiness of spirit in her descriptions and the playfulness of her humour rest upon a solid basis of sound good qualities. She describes admirably; her hits at her countrymen's foibles, and her laughable descriptions of native manner, chime in well with the care she displays about the welfare of the native schools, and the interest she takes in the reading rooms established for the benefit of the natives. She is a naturalist too, and improved her opportunities for collecting while in the land of the sun. Her description of a return visit paid to one of the country rajahs is excellent. From the nature of the music which accompanied him, she gave him the name of "Penny Whistle." On arriving at his town she describes the musical instruments, dancing-girls, and the whole scene of her reception, as too absurd for gravity. On entering the palace court, a very fine elephant made his salaam to them, side by side with a wooden rocking-horse; the court was filled with ragged retainers and fifty dancing-girls, "all bobbing and bowing, salaaming and anticking, nineteen to the dozen." The grotesque habitation is well described, and "Penny Whistle's" collection of pictures, in reality only coloured prints of hares and rabbits. Then all "Penny Whistle" did to entertain his guests, and the person of his immense, feather-bed, sphinx-faced wife, so finely dressed, are well hit off. But it must not be imagined that the descriptions are all of a playful character. There are statements respecting education, the missionaries, and the progress of religious instruction full of starting sense. The sentiments of the people upon topics connected with their own or their christian faith, and, we are sorry to see it, statements of the heavy and grievous taxation of the natives, a feast for five hundrel of whom which she gave them in rice from charity, cost but a guinea and half.

The insipidity of much of Indian life is shown up, as well as the rapid character of conversation in general in that emaciating climate. It appears, however, that the social life of India has its bright side. Speaking of one place she observed that the ladies of the principal officers of the European regiments never become "Indianized" in manners but show themselves exceedingly active and useful, keeping up schools for the soldier's children, and rendering themselves real blessings to this poor countrywoman. But we have said enough to show one good opinion of the letters of this lively and accomplished writer.