Daily national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1854, 1854-03-10
LITERARY NOTICES.

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LITERARY NOTICES.
AN EXPOSITION OF THE ErIsTLr OF PAUL THE
APOSTLE 70 THE GALATIANS. BY John Brown,
d d Of Edinburgh, Scotland. New York Pub
lished by Robert Carter 4 Brothers. One VOL, PIP.
45O Sold by Gray 4 Ballantyne, Washington
This work is an admirable specimen Of mod
ern exegesis. It is just what a man Of general
science and reading desires in a commentary
Of the Holy Scriptures. All that pious media
ton demands has been supplied BY the devo-
tional Commentary of Matthew Henry, whose
ubiquity Of Scripture has won for his work
the admiration Of Christians of all scots; and
for practical application Of Scripture teach
ings, the Commentaries Of Scott and Benson
are generally known. But higher and
more critical order Of expository writings has
taken the place Of these, and we deem it an
evidence Of the progress Of Christian knowL
edge that this is 80. 1t has been the habit of
commentators to write up system Of divinity
and in this labor every crooked text must be
made straight, and every rough place smooth.
The reader was never permitted to see the
scope of an argument fairly presented on
passage which made against the Body OF
Divinity adopted by the commentator. II
has been labor of vast magnitude to get out
of the sphere Of such influences. And that
the authors of the present day have done 80,
is one result Of modern German scholarship.
If there has been the rankest skepticism in
the writings of Strauss and Paulus, there has
been presented to the world the best OF all
methods Of Interpretation in the writings OF
Knapp Olshausen, and Neander. But Ger
mans can never write commentaries for Anglo
Saxons. There is something in all they say,
the best Of them, which no an Of translation
can make palatable. There is something OF
the stified smoke of tobacco, the heat Of
close stove and unopened windows, connected
with all their speculations.
The author of this work is the Rev. John
Brown, we'll known in England and Scotland
for his great and eminent piety and scholar
ship. This is his last work-the ripest fruit of
golden age, spent in teaching Divinity as
Divinity professor. Paul here speaks for him
self-every effort of the author is to present to
the reader all aids to help him to the very idea
which Paul has expressed in the Greek Of this
epistle. As he has said in his preface, his aim
has been the removal Of the bandages and
entanglements which have surrounded inspired
truth, so that it may walk at liberty and per-
form those high and holy functions which are
its exclusive prerogatiye lin reforming the
church and converting the world. This has
been the main object Of my public life, and es.
pecially Of those excgetical works which have
Of late years sent from the press" II is with
the highest admiration Of this work, that we
warmly commend il to all whose studies and
tastes land we hope there are many such
among the readers Of the Era make works Of
this sort acceptable.
Let no one fear, from what we have said,
that this work is for scholars only II is not
80. The author has sought, successfully, to
make this at once readable book for intelli-
gent Christians, though unacquainted with the
Sacred Languages, and q satisfactory statement
Of the facts and principles on which the Exc
gesis is based, to critical students of the New
Testament. r.
CLOVER Nook; or Rccocc tions Of our Neighborhood
in the West. Second Series. By Alice Carey. n
York: Red6eld a Co. For sale by Taylor A Maury,
Washington, D. c. vol, PIP 1854
The writer has depicted Western scenes and
characters, Western homes and manners, with
4 fidelity and accuracy Of which those only
who have lived among them are capable. The
old fashioned quilting Party no common
and SO indispensable in the days Of our grand
mothers but obsolete now with US though
kept up still at the West is painted to the life;
and as we read her humorous description, we
almost sigh for the simple, inarti6cial life Of
the country, with its true hearts and honest
purposes. My Visit to Randolph" reminds
us Of some Of Dickens's lively sketches and
Miss Matilda Hamersley might pass for Sec
ond Mrs. Skewton. The simple but beautiful
pictures Of life among the poor, with it's patient
endurance for loves sake, and sacrifice Of self
ish wishes for the comfort Of the whole, are
written with touching pathos which reaches
the heart and calls forth its better feelings.
The author speaks thus Of her object in PEN
ming these pages
!" In our country, though all men are not
crested equal, such Is the influence Of the SEN
timent Of political equality, that
An thoughts, all passions, all delights,
Whatever stirs this mortal frame
may with ss much probability be supposed to
~ o~~1 In tko Iorx
cabin as in the marble mansion; and to illus
trate this truth, to dispel that erroneous belief
Of the necessary baseness Of the common peo-
pie, which the great masters in literature have
In al ages labored 10 create, is purpose and
an object in our nationality, to which the finest
and the highest genius may wisely be devoted
but which may be effected IN degrees BY