Reviews Of New Books.

frightful wickedness , but also of gross ignorance and superstition ; appearing totally to forget that the " wisdom of tiie Egyptians" is specially mentioned in the scriptures , and that a host of writers in ancient and modern times have held opinions diametrically opposite to his own . Has Bro . Hyneman ever looked into any of the modern commentaries upon Herodotus , and have the works of Sir Gardner Wilkinson and the learned Champollion totally escaped his notice ? The many books of travels published of late

years in America by his more enlightened countrymen who have voyaged in eastern climes , might , we think , have been consulted by our author with , profit . Those of his compatriots who have witnessed with their own eyes the glorious remains of architectural and plastic art , which still remain to astonish and delight the beholder in the ruined cities of Egypt , have conic to very different conclusions with regard to the learning and science of its former people to those which our author has adoptedfrom what source we

, are at a loss to conjecture . Surely Bayard Taylor , " Howadjee" Curtis , or any of the energetic aud educated American missionaries whose field of labour lies in the adjacent countries to that in question , would , had they heen consulted by our somewhat reckless scribe , have conveyed a very different impression to his mind with regard to that ancient race . A certain

" Professor E . C . Wines " appears to lie almost the only authority that our author has to show , and we cannot say from the specimens with which we are favoured , that wc have been able to form any very exalted idea of that personage ' s learning or philosophy . The work before us is characterized by the verbiage and attempted fine writing which arc the besetting sins of the countless host of scribblers whose productions the teeming press of America pours forth , daily and hourly .

The ability to string together a number of turgid sentences abounding in expressions ludicrously inapplicable—despising at the same time all considerations of grammar and common sense—appears to be the only requisite to induce these men to rush into print . The great and principal object is to writewhether you have anything to say is a secondary consideration ; should an idea happily occur to you , take care to hammer and wiredraw it to the utmost , ami in the absence of ideas fill up with slipslop . A gem of this peculiar style of composition is found in the remarks upon the virtuous Joseph : —

' ¦ ' The pure and heavenly principles inculcated by the devout and pious Jacob , his father , wero deeply engraven upon his heart , aud notwithstanding the lewd practices of the Egyptians , he could not bo seduced from his duty , nor tho fascinations and entreaties of . Potiphor's wife induce him to forget that tho All-seeing eye was ever present ; and although it was tho common practice of the Egyptians , and considered by them a virtue rather than a crime , yet ho knew that it wifc morally wrong , and a violation of God ' s law . " In this misty sentence wc perceive that the writer intends to draw our

attention to " a common practice of the Egyptians , " but whether that was " the pure and heavenly principles , " "the All-seeing eye , " or "Potipher ' s wife , " we are not able to discover . Again we find our philosophical author expressing his ideas as follows -. — ' - ' The human mind , whoso hope rests ou tho Infinite aud Eternal God , and whose actions based a belief in immortalitydevelopes with the clear of the

upon , ray intellect , and unfolds the grandeur aud glory of that being from whom it emanated , and produces results incomprehensible- to those whose affections are of a grossly sensual character , " This may be very poetical ancl -eery profound , but to us . we must confess it is incomprehensible . Docs the writer mean that the "human mind