The entire world of antiquity did not much exceed in dimension the Continent of North America; but we are not, therefore, to conclude that the moderns have any moral advantages, any nearer and more vital knowledge of the divine law, than the writers of antiquity. Suppose it were proved that the deluge of Noah did not cover the Alleghanies, or the rocks of Australia, is the Scripture any the less the sole book of the divine and moral law? Suppose it were even proved that the writers of the Old and even New Testament, had no correct knowledge of the sciences, not even of astronomy, and that the accounts of Noah's deluge and other natural and historical phenomena described in Scripture, were merely traditionary myths, we do not find, in our own minds, that the least shadow of doubt is thereby thrown either upon the doctrine of Christ's divinity, or upon a single saving point of Christian faith.

Our author takes ground against the idea of the unity of the human race, and maintains that the negro, and other varieties of the human race, are distinct species.

Into the merits of the argument we are not inclined to enter. The author holds with Origen, "that the purpose of the Bible is not to transmit old tales, but to instruct in the rules of life." This is certainly a false opinion, notwithstanding the venerable authority of a father of the church; for, even among the modern bistorians of antiquity, the Scriptures of the Old Testament are regarded as the most complete and reliable collection of the records of primeval history extant. The reader will find much to elicit thought, in the work before us; but we make bold to say, the author does not treat the historical character of Scripture with the respect usually given it by the most learned and valuable authorities.

"Once possessed of a work so able, copious, and scientifically constructed, as WEBSTER'S QUARTO DICTIONARY, one discovers a hundred benefits previously unthought of. Old uses, and new uses, and disuses and abuses,-old terms, and new terms, and the history of the rise and progress of terms,-together with apt citations, pointed and sparkling,-with other benefits I need not attempt to enumerate, combine to make him feel the work a desideratumto lay it as a corner-stone in his library. Or rather, since corner stones are not often disturbed,—as a janitor-a librarian,-ever at his post, ready to converse on whatever topic is at hand."