of the most energetic laborers in behalf of the cause of German unity, and as an associate and assistant of the great statesman Stein he rendered good service to his adopted country through all the years of the war of German liberation. In 1818, at the age of forty-nine, he received an appointment in the new university founded in Bonn. But he had not yet reached a haven of rest. It was the period when the greatest alarm was felt by the established government at the rising spirit of democracy. It was the period when in consequence of the German national spirit which was spreading abroad, secret societies were being everywhere formed. Arndt had no connection with them, but he became suspected on account of his known liberal views; was arrested; and for years endured a kind of political persecution. At this time he thought of emigrating to America. What the feelings were which prevented him from carrying out this plan may be learned from a letter written in 1824. He says: "Into the American desert of so-called liberty I could not go. I do not see how there could be any very enviable happiness there for me or for my grandchildren, in merely having possession of a spot of ground on which to graze in tolerable comfort. When some centuries have gone by, it may be better. At present, the best of them appear to me to be only good shopkeepers, or to be as civil as possible-shopkeeping peasants." It was not till 1840, on the accession of Frederick William IV. that he was reinstated in his professorship, which had been taken from him. In 1848, Arndt, now seventy-eight years of age, was elected to the National Assembly which met in Frankfort, and took a prominent part in all its proceedings. He was one of the deputation who were sent to offer to the King of Prussia the Imperial Crown. Arndt was one of the men who have labored most earnestly in the cause of German unity, the value and importance of which he most clearly discerned from the disastrous days of Jena. Professor Seeley, the author of the recently published Life of Stein, in the preface which he has written for this memoir says, it is one of those books which may serve the purpose for which the historical novel was invented, and in a better way. When a Scott relates the adventures of some young lover or soldier playing a minor part in one of the great scenes of history, it is supposed that his reader imbibes history unconsciously, and catches the character of an age without the trouble of studying its documents. But the theory of the historical novel is open to `many objections, which

have led Gervinus to pronounce upon it the damning sentence that it does not satisfy the taste for art nor yet cultivate the taste for history! How can the novelist teach history unless he knows it himself? Yet it is greatly to underrate the difficulty of acquiring a true knowledge of history to suppose that a novelist is at all likely to have it. From such writings in fact we do not commonly catch the character of an age, but only the character of a particular novelist's imagination. But in a candid biography, like this of Arndt's, we do really catch in some degree the spirit of an age. Here we see, not what a poet living in some other age fancied may have been, the teachings of a German living under Napoleon's tyranny, but what the feelings of such a German actually were. These memoirs may serve as a sort of ErckmannChatrian novel for Germany, showing us the side of the Napoleonic age which history for the most part overlooks; and at the same time, they have the advantage over every novel that they are true, and also that they make us acquainted with an interesting and a celebrated man.

CONFERENCE PAPERS.

BY DR. HODGE.*-These papers are analyses of familiar talks to the students on Sabbath afternoons. All of the professors are accustomed to take part in these conferences. But during the long period from about 1848 till his death in 1878, Dr. Hodge was recognized by all as the central sun which gave light and heat to the entire service. He wrote out a careful analysis of every one of his discourses on these occasions. And it appears that he never used the same preparation twice, but prepared, even after he had passed his 80th year, a new paper for each Conference. This volume contains 249 of these analyses. They will be interesting as reminiscences to the many who were his pupils, and as opening the workings of his mind and heart in respect to the religious life to all who honor this eminent theologian. They have a practical value as presenting the points of his wise and loving counsel in respect to the religious life and suggesting lines of thought. They have a homiletical value as suggesting doctrinal and practical points pertaining to the subjects discussed, and exemplifying the union of simplicity with strength.

*Conference Papers, or Analyses of discourses, doctrinal and practical, delivered on Sabbath afternoons to the students of the Theological Seminary, Princeton, N. J. By CHARLES HODGE, D.D. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. XV and 373 pp.

1879. 8vo.

CONTURE'S CONVERSATIONS ON ART.*-This is a book on art which will well repay a careful study. It may be considered the off-hand talk rather than conversations of a painter, from which may be gathered the ideas which control him in the practice of his profession. The book is strangely even laughably deficient in anything like method. Conture was a man of immense conceit, who never could be satisfied to receive any of the principles of his art on trust from others. It was a necessity with him to work out everything for himself. But there were in him the elements of genius, and after incredible toil he achieved a success which may be considered brilliant. He says himself: "Rebellious against all science, it has been impossible for me to learn by academic means. Were these teachings bad? I cannot say. I never understood them. The sight of nature, the eager desire to produce that which captivated me, guided me better than the words which seemed useless; and, besides, I confess to my shame, I did not wish to listen. This independence has cost me dear. I have often mistaken the way, sometimes entirely lost myself. there has come to me from these fortunes great results, great light. I came out from them more robust, torn to pieces, it is true, but no less valiant. These intellectual gymnastics have formed within me a good artistic temperament." The book abounds with interesting anecdotes respecting himself and with criticisms on the paintings of other French artists.

But

THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH.-This volume contains fifty-four sermons by preachers representing different evangelical denominations. Its publication is designed to exemplify and promote unity among Christians. It contains one or more sermons from Binney, Melvill, Garbett, Maclaren, Guthrie, Bishop Jackson, Raffles, Mansel, Raleigh, Rainy, Dale, Archbishop Thomson, Caird, J. Pye Smith, Punshon, and others. The sermons are generally of a high order of excellence.

* Conversations on Art Methods. By THOMAS CONTURE. Translated from the French by S. E. STEWART, with an introduction by ROBERT SWAIN GIFFORD. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1879. 252 pp. 12mo.

+ The Evangelical Church: A Series of Discourses by Ministers of different Denominations, illustrating the spiritual unity of the Church of Christ. Edited by the Rev. HENRY TULLIDGE, D.D., author of "Triumphs of the Bible." New York: Thomas Whitaker, Nos. 2 and 3 Bible House. 1879. 8vo.

Price $2.50.

749 PP.

LIFE AND LETTERS OF BARONESS BUNSEN.*-The subject of this memoir, after a residence of many years in Rome as the wife of the Prussian ambassador to the Papal court, on returning to England, her native land, and visiting the Arnolds at Rugby, wrote to a friend: "The whole state and order of their house and family, the spirit that moves themselves and their children, that regulates their plans of education and plans of life, is of ideal excellence: it does one good to think that such a family exists, and the pleasure is increased by the thought that we are allowed to call them friends." The pleasure which is in store for those who read this book is precisely of the same character with that which the Baroness Bunsen herself experienced at the house of Dr. Arnold, and has here described. The charm of this memoir of her life does not depend at all on descriptions of the many celebrated characters whom she knew; nor on any glimpses which are afforded of the relations of the Papal to the Prussian courts during the very interesting period when she resided in Rome; nor even on any information about the literary habits or tastes of her accomplished and versatile husband. Something of all this will be found, though not as much as there would doubtless have been, if an extended memoir of Baron Bunsen had not already been published. But the special charm of the book consists in knowing that such a family has existed, and in being permitted as a friend to share in all that made up this family life, from the time a home was first established in Rome in 1817, through all its various migrations, to Berne in 1839, to London in 1841, to Heidelberg in 1851, to Bonn in 1860, and finally to Carlsruhe in 1861, and Herrenalb in 1872. The Baroness Bunsen was a refined English woman who was fitted in every way by native character and by education to make the home of her husband, at all the courts where he represented his sovereign the king of Prussia, renowned as an attractive resort for the best and most highly cultivated people of every nation; at the same time, as this memoir gives abundant evidence, she was the careful mother of twelve children; who devoted herself with all assiduity to their education and to the formation of their character. The editor of the memoir is Mr. Augustus J. C. Hare, who is already so well known as the author of "Memorial of a Quiet Life."

*The Life and Letters of Frances, Baroness Bunsen. By AUGUSTUS J. C. HARE. New York: George Routledge & Sons. 12mo. pp. 516, 486. 1879.