The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-11-17
NO. $50.
LITERARY NOTICES.

edition, undertaken Tor the Trustees OF the Brit
i.b Museum. BY Austin H. Layard Member of
p,.Iiamcnt New York Harper Brothers For
sale by Franck Taylor, Pa avenue, Washington
DC. vol, PIP. $40.
The second expedition, in its results, surpass-
o. in interest the first, in which Mr.. Layard
a,tonished the world by the revelations made
If the ancient city of Nneveh-" that great
c,ty' whose destruction was once the subject
Of the anxious and ftful expectation of Jonah
but. although then saved, long long ages ago
il was buried from the sight of men, now to 10
e,bumed for the yerification of ancient prophe-
~ and Of the integrity and truth OF the Holy
Sorpturcs Tho mounds under which these
.,.;snt cities lie buried were first visited by
N.:L,,br \ German who travelled in the East
. hundred years ago; and MIR. Rich, in 1920,
hro,0bt home some of those strange bricks
'"h;.b have 80 puzzled the world by their ar
.ov headed letters. In 1889, they were first
..;.od Inv Layard, whose labors were anticpa.
IA nv Mons. Botta, the French Consul at Mo-
suI 10 whom Mr. Layard assigns the honor OF
the discovery of the first Assyrlan monument
These discoveries are altogether surprising and
they have but begun to be made Inc MOST
o;ngu,ar success has attended the readlng OF
a. crre;form character, so that 1t Is comb
dantly stated that the,snscriptlons can De ana
% uany of them, correctly decipered. Not
oaIu are historical facts verified and smpllhed,
hnt the condition of civilization, the arts and
n,orners of these long forgotten nations, are
.,,overed. We have, now, specimens OF their
n,etbods of enamellng of paint compounded
.o,ord;no TO the best methods of modern chem
;.ts If their metals, of their ivory manufac-
tures of their glass, and their microscopes
their engraved seals and gems, and tablets
and ba+reliefs full Of historical records. 1t
, nav be-and probably will be-that these
ruins, when fully explored, will give us more
neriect picture of the manners and customs
arts and sciences, of these men Of Assyria, than
oao ba received from all the writings OF ancient
Greece, of Grecian science, arts, manners, ana
customs. This has been done for Egypt by
Sir George Wilkenson and others, and it may
vet be accomplished for Nineveh, whose doom
!. recorded in the writings of Nahum and Zeph-
aniah, who thus speak; 4" | will cast abomlha-
Bile filth upon thee, and make thee vile. Nlne-
veh is laid waste who shall bemoan her-the
bloody city"
Tur HISTORY OF THE WEsTMINsrER ASSEMBLY OF
DiyrSEs. By W. NJ Hetherington. New York
Robert Carter 4 Brothers. For sale by Gray
BaIlantyne, eth street, Washington d. Z.
II is somewhat singular that at this late day
a body 80 numerous and 80 learned as the
Presbyterian Church should now, for the first
time (so says the au,hor) have a history writ
ten Of those great minds who created the Con-
fession of Faith, and that most wonderful of all
catechisms the Westminster works which
have given form and pressure to the minds of
millions.
The history of Presbyterianism Of modern
times begins with the reign of Henry VIII,
when the religious mind of England, released
from the iron pressure of Catholic unity, sprung
up in myriads of forms, having the common
title of Pridnism ; to which, says Hume-no
tutional Lberty7 Out of Puritanism came the
various sects into which the world-the Anglo
Saxon worlds divided, and among these,
Presbyterianism. 1t was the day of rife specu-
latiOns and severe methods to insure church
conformity. Roger Williams had not then IN
vented the doctrine of Freedom of Conscience
his bOok-"The Bloody Tenet" as he called
the union of the sword of the magistrate with
the church of Christ-was not written for near
century after Edward W. at the suggestion
Of Cranmer, burned at the stake Joan of Kent,
because she would not believe in the baptism
Of infants Cromwell--that great man, who
was a century in advance of his times-was
yet to be born. The progress of these develop
ments of the age of Henry, of Elizabeth, Of
James |, of Charles |, and of Cromwell, are
here given, from a Presbyterian standpoint
LISA topic of interest to all readers, and we
are glad it is written. 1t would seem as if the
death Of Cromwell, whose large, liberal views
were sohostle to the then leaders of the Pres
byterian Church in Great Britain, had mos.
unhappy effect upon the literature and science
Of Preshyterianism-tha they have left to be
destroyed, by fire. and time, and accident the
manuscript records of the Westminster Assem-
bly, and DIR. Thomas Goodwin's fifteen volumes
Of notes and journals of the Assembly's pro-
ceedngs. The restoration of Charles II seemed
70 have "erushed out" to use the phrase of a
recent letter, the fire and life of all the ostra-
cled dissenting churches of that day and from
which they are only now recovering.
IHE CLOIsrER LIFE OF CHARLES V. By VIM. Ster-
ling. Boston Crosby 4 Nichols. For sale by
tray Ballantyne, 18th street, Washington. d. c.
The attraction felt in the public mind to
Know all to be known Of the closing scenes of
the life of Napoleon, have made popular the
many volumes written by OMeara and Las
Casas and other writer's. 1t is a topic of ex-
IRENE interest to witness great and control
ling mind in it's workings, when the cares of
state and the conventional forms of a mon-
srch's life are ended, and the man lives before
you Such is the subject of this history. All
the various works once filing the public mind
have been winnowed of their richest fruits, and
are here collected and presented to the public.
1t shows, too, how false is history--as Mr.. Ster
Ing has shown the graphic story, by Robert
Son Of the Emperor attending his own mock
funeral is all mockery-mere trumpery of the
lying historian Lett
iht LlrE AND LABoRs or REv. CHARLES SIMEON.
ny Right Rev. William Meade, ID. d. New y ork
ru'Ished by the Protestant Episcopal Society for
we Promotion of Evangelical knowledge. For
W tray Ballantyne, 9TH street, Washington,
y nc hev Charles Simeon was born in 1859.
.'0 ieh an autobiography of his life, which is