certainly must needs be too true to be proved: and the highest perfection can appear doubtful only to sensualism and sin.” “The Battle of the Churches,” the most exquisite in thought and style of all the essays in the volume, and well-known to most readers for its clear statement of the hold which Romanism has upon the affections of mankind, contains many examples of the fine irony and bland sarcasm which enter into the more stimulating ingredients of Mr. Martineau’s softly flowing diction. His statement of Comte’s Law of Progression, as followed by his view of the complicated theological discussions which now divide England into furious parties, is most demurely comical. “In 1822,” he commences, “a French philosopher discovered the grand law of human progression, revealed it to applauding Paris, brought the history of all civilized nations to pronounce it infallible, and computed from it the future course of European society. The mind of man, we are assured by Auguste Comte, passes by invariable necessity through three stages of development: the state of religion, or fiction; of metaphysics, or abstract thought; of science, or positive knowledge. No change in this order, no return upon its steps, is possible; the shadow cannot retreat upon the dial, or the man return to the nature of the child. Every one who is not behind the age will tell you, that he has outlived the theology of his infancy and the philosophy of his youth, to settle down on a physical belief in the ripeness of his powers. And so, too, the world, passing from myth to metaphysics, and from metaphysics to induction, begins with the Bible and ends with the ‘_Cours de Philosophie Positive_.’ To the schools of the prophets succeeds ‘_L’Ecole Polytechnique_;’ and our intellect, having surmounted the meridians of God and the Soul, culminates in the apprehension of material nature. Henceforth the problems so intensely attractive to speculation, and so variously answered by faith, retire from the field of thought. They have an interest, as in some sense the autobiography of an adolescent world: but they were never to return in living action upon the earth.” We can only, in conclusion, recommend to our readers an examination of this volume, and to its editor a continuation of his well-rewarded labors in Mr. Martineau’s mine. * * * * * _The Women of Early Christianity. A Series of Portraits, with appropriate Descriptions, by several American Clergymen. Edited by Rev. J. A. Spencer, M. A. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1 vol. 8vo._