CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 337 



A Popular View of the Progress of Philosophy among the Ancients. 

 By J. Toulmin Smith. London : Longman and Co. pp. 454. 



We report, with much satisfaction, on a work recently published 

 by Mr. Joshua Toulmin Smith, on The Progress of Philosophy 

 among the Ancients. The subject is happy at this juncture, the 

 handling masterly, and the inferences of incomparable utility to the 

 present extended society of letters. The author takes a succinct view 

 of the theologic and moral philosophies of the several nations of an- 

 tiquity ; thus embodying in our vernacular tongue, theories hitherto 

 wrapt in the mysteries of obsolete and, to most readers, inaccessible 

 dialects; laying bare the barrenness of metaphysics, venerable only 

 by wordy nullities, and directing research to those truths meriting 

 the admiration of the initiated. 



It is amusing to observe how Mr. Smith has disengaged an iden- 

 tical theologic inference from the discordances of barbaric systems. 

 The author has succeeded in an arduous attempt — he has trans- 

 ferred the science of antiquity from the schools to the people, who 

 are hereby enabled to place in antithesis the value of the ancient and 

 modern philosophies — of the imaginative and metaphysical method of 

 the former, and of the physical and practical manner of the latter. If 

 we might direct attention to any part of the work, as meriting espe- 

 cial regard, and as opening a fund of information not generally 

 diffused, it would be to that which treats on the philosophy of the 

 elect people of God under the Mosaic dispensation. 



The style is characterized at once by simplicity, brevity, and 

 perspicuity ; and we would with confidence augur that this volume 

 will become a popular manual of those curious in the dogmas, and 

 incompetent in the languages of the barbaric, sacred, and classic 

 philosophies. 



The Irresistible Influence of Early Impressions on the Mind of 

 Man. By C. V. Whitwell. London : Whittaker & Co. 1836*. 



The public may wonder why we devote a page to the considera- 

 tion of a mere pamphlet ; but it is not only the very talented address 

 of Miss Whitwell which we examine, but especially the importance 

 of the subject of which it treats. Truth, in its nature, is homogene- 

 ous and consistent, and, however faint the emanation, it is identified 

 with its source. There are few whose experience has not taught 

 them some of those truths which are incidental to suffering, but 

 which are too loose and unconnected to apply and profit by. It is 

 the privilege of few to appreciate these scattered facts, and, by a 

 logical comparing reason, collect, arrange, and apply them to the 

 common necessities of mankind. This pamphlet is one of the 

 conservatories of truth ; if it contain nothing new, it illuminates 

 what was before obscure, and directs the mind to a higher and 

 better nature. Let not our readers suppose that Miss Whitwell 

 has lately or suddenly seized upon her theory, or that she is a mere 



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