190 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 



physical researcli, threw the philosophy of Reid into the shade as a thing of 

 naught ; and now comes Mr. Wirgman, and if there is any truth in sound reason- 

 ing, in mathematical logic, he as completely finishes the school of the " Brownies" 

 as he would any other hobgoblins of the land of flood and field. 



The philosophy of Mr. Wirgman is that of Immanuel Kant, the great German 

 metaphysician, weeded from all its incongruities and irapuiities. The object is 

 to prove the whole of the Christian doctrine to be divine by the strict method of 

 analysis and deduction ; and we may say that the author has brought into his 

 work a degree of mental strength rarely to be found in works of the present day. 

 To the most logical reasoning he has added all the graces of diction, and has thus 

 rendered what would otherwise have been "dry reading " interesting and even 

 entertaining. If the desire of proving, upon a mathematical principle, religion lo 

 be true, is a gree t and good one, no less great and good is the other object which 

 Mr. Wirgman professes, — namely, that of destroying forever all sectarian differ- 

 ences. These designs, prosecuted with an ardour, an indefatigability, and a per- 

 severance, not surpassed by any of the great minds of former ages or the present, 

 are likely, if not now, yet ultimately, to be realized. " He who shall separate 

 motive from action, truth from fiction, religion from hypocrisy, virtue from us sha- 

 dow, reason from sense, principle from instinct, our essential from our animal 

 nature," says the pious Hooper, " will deserve a monument more lasting than the 

 Pyramids of Egypt." To enable us to ascertain how much chance there is of this 

 great wish being accomplished, we shall, without further comment, refer at once 

 to the " Divarication." 



Valpy's Elements of Greek Grammar. Longman and Co. 

 Wliittaker and Co. 



Aj«ii i'.ittau tratrif. The beginning is the half of the whole, and what is'well begun 

 is truly done. This may be ai>plied to the Grammar before us with much fitness. 

 Mr. V,ilpy's series of school and college classics is excellent, and his courage in 

 introducmg the English Greek Grammar is to be commended by every friend to 

 improvement. Of all the ancient languages, Greek is at once the most nervous 

 Snd comprehensive, and stands no comparison with the Latin. The only language, 

 indeed, that approaches it is the English, and we do not see why an inferior 

 language should be used to explain and illustrate one so infinitely superior. The 

 English, then, we hold to be the most fitting for this work, as it more nearly 

 approaches the language to be acquired; and we look upon Valpy's Greek 

 English Grammar to be far more serviceable to the young pupil than those 

 which would render the abstract difficulties of a grammar more perplexing by a 

 Latin context. 



Exercises for Ladies, calculated to preserve and improve Beauty, and to 

 prevent and correct Personal Defects, founded on Physiological 

 Principles. With Thirty-tliree Outline Plates. T. Hurst,' St. Paul's 

 Church-yard. ' 

 The principles of physiology were never better applied than in this work, as 

 they are made the means to an end, and that end is one of the highest importance 

 to females. The exercises here introduced have not only the objects stated by 

 the author, but, perhaps, a still higher one: namely, the preservation of the 

 general health of the subject, as the rules apply in such a maimer as to insure the 

 exercise of all the muscles of the human body. They comprehend every variety 

 of posture — riding, standing, walking, lying in bed even, and give general direc- 

 tions as to their appropriation and guidance. Nothing evinces better the quick 

 sagacity of the excellent Dr. Birkbeck, than his ready recommendation of such a 

 work. After his opinion, it would be vain to blame and useless to praise it. We 

 therefore content ourselves with this very brief notice, which we trust will be 

 sufficient to place the work in the hands of our female friends, who will understand 

 that beauty depends on health, and health on exercise. 



