French Reviews.

REVUE CHRETIENNE, (Christian Review.) August, 1881.-1. MOURON, Education of Women. 2. WENNAGEL, Christ and Nature. 3. STAPFER, A Thesis for the Doctorate. 4. SCHAEFFER, Genoa. German Chronicle, by Lichtenberger, and Monthly Review, by Pressensé.

September.-1. STEINHEIL, Eternal Punishment. 2. MOURON, Education of Women. (second paper.) English Chronicle, by E. W., and Monthly Review.

Decidedly the leading articles in the above numbers are those devoted to the Education of Women. This is rapidly becoming a leading question among all those in France who are partisans of the truest and broadest liberty. The people of intelligence in France begin to perceive that they can never be truly free until the women are wrested from the fetters of ignorance and superstition in which they are so largely held by the priests. The demand is, therefore, becoming general among the Liberals of all shades, whether with or without religious conviction, that there shall be a system of higher education for women, sustained, or at least fostered, by the State. And in this conviction the question is every-where asked, "What shall be the education of women?" And it will be interesting to see the answer by a leader of the French Protestant Church.

"It should be the same as that of man with regard to her ultimate and final destiny, and different from that of man as regards her special calling. Or, in other words, woman must be educated as man in order to become the human being that God wishes; but she must be otherwise educated in that which concerns the being on whom fall the special duties of wife and mother. Or, still otherwise expressed, the education of man and woman are not to be alike; and their instruction must differ still more. Education is addressed in fact to the whole being. The religious and moral duties of man and woman, their manner of existing before God and man, cannot greatly differ; there are not two ways of forming the being which is called man or woman; there are not two kinds of motives or obligations. There is but one kind, because there is but one God who is the Father of us all. In remembering that woman has more heart and less will than man, that she proceeds by intuition rather than reflection, we shall be able to present duty to her rather under the form of education than under that of

imperative obligation; we must take more precautions against the weakness of her will, or remedy this weakness by giving to it more exercise. But these are shades of difference, and matters of tact and proportion that do not constitute two moralities do not create two educations. Instruction does not consist directly in the formation of the soul, its preparation for divine and human life, the communication of interior motives, or of a manner of being spiritual-it consists in the communication of knowledge. Duties all tend to one single object -God; and to a like situation-our situation as creatures. Knowledge is applied to different objects and different situa tions. Therefore, the situation of woman being in certain regards special, her instruction will take for that reason a special direction." This, it will be seen, lays down the platform of the author, and gives us the key to the line that will be followed by the Reformed Church of France in this new departure in the matter of the education of women.

It is interesting to notice that the "English Chronicle" in the September number is devoted entirely to Dean Stanley, notwithstanding the fact that the "Monthly Review" of the previous number, in the hands of Pressensé, was largely given up to the same study. This goes to show how great was the influence that the Dean exerted on the Protestants of France, and how cosmopolitan was his influence with all Protestantism. The Reformed Church of France found much consolation in the fact that the best representative of the Broad Church of England sympathized with them and understood them, even to their different shadings as to religious truth and doctrines, and was ever ready to uphold and encourage those who showed by their fruits that the tree was good, without regard to persons or shades of belief. Stanley reserved all his fire to combat opinions and prejudices, and not men, and thus, wherever ecclesiastical conflicts were of minor importance, he gained all hearts, and thus captured the Protestants on the other side of the Channel who do not tire of doing him honor even more than many of his own countrymen. This is the justification of the author for devoting an entire "Chronicle " to the muchloved Dean.

Bonnet Maury is among the brightest and most interesting of the members of the new Faculty of Protestant Theology in

Paris, which is virtually the revival of the defunct school of Strasburg that went down with so many other French institutions in Alsace under the bombardment of the Germans. When these gentlemen desire the doctorate they work for it, and the thesis that gained for him the prize was the "Origin of Unitarian Christianity among the English." Rather a strange subject for one of his class to take interest in, and to which to devote, not a thesis in our view of the matter, but a veritable book of some three hundred pages, comprising a series of studies that are little less than a journey throughout Europe, as he says, in search of Unitarian ideas. But his tour is a very interesting one, and we follow him with great pleasure in his rapid sketches of each Unitarian Reformer; and these studies, while being too rapid for the theologian, because of the absence of scientific investigation and rigid criticism, are for that reason the better adapted for popular circulation. They form a people's book that is full of information. He finds the Unitarians most numerous in Transylvania, Great Britain, and the United States. The first adherents of this doctrine were the Reformers of the sixteenth century, who were more radical than Luther and Calvin. name of Servetus, burned by Calvin for not same opinion as himself, is the first on his list. persecuted by Catholics as Protestants, and by the latter as Schismatics, and the recital of the story of their sufferings is one that makes the cheeks tingle with shame. He shows that these men, hunted like wild beasts, found a refuge in England, and thus Unitarianism was not born on English soil, but came from France, Italy, and Spain. In these details Bonnet Maury finds it difficult to separate his function as historian from that of critic, and in this capacity he is on ticklish ground in France, where the Unitarian spirit is now so strong in many of the Reformed Churches. He will meet with severe criticism among his own people for sentences like the following, that fail in scientific accuracy, both in expression and thought: "In order that the justness of a religious thought be established, one must prove that it is conformable to human reason and the Holy Scriptures; that is to say, to the highest expression of Divine Reason." His reviewer humbly confesses his inability to comprehend this definition of the Bible. The trouble

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most probably is that Maury is trying to offend neither party in France into which the Reformed Church is divided, and thus is sitting on two stools. It were much better that he had treated the subject less objectively, and gone to the bottom of it with a complete criticism and his own view of many of the disputed questions. While the French Protestants in the Established Church have agreed to disagree, and have established independent and unofficial synods, it is a good time to be quite thorough in the ventilation of the vital differences in belief entertained by so many that are ranged under the same Church organization and hold equal relations to the State, though so different in their creeds. Nothing is now to be gained by obscuring the situation with ambiguous expressions. As a literary effort the work is worthy of all praise, and was pronounced good in being rewarded with the doctorate for its author.

ART. X.-FOREIGN RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

THE SACRED CITY OF NORTHERN AFRICA.

THE French people are very fond of quoting their favorite proverb, C'est le premier pas qui coute-"It is the first step which costs"—but practically they are quite inclined to take this step without counting the cost. This was very emphatically the case when they began the invasion of Tunis under the pretense of punishing a few predatory Kroumirs who annoyed them in their Algerine territory adjoining. In the conflict they have been led on step by step, as under the influence of the siren's song, until they have finally taken the dangerous step of seizing the sacred city of Islam for all Northern Africa, a measure that may stir up against them a bitterness of feeling on the part of the Moslem Arabs that will not be soon or easily allayed.

This fact will make Kairwan the center of observation for a time, and virtually reveal it to the world, which has scarcely been aware of its existence. It was once the seat of a caliphate, and was so sacred that the Moslems called it one of the four gates of Paradise, and consigned to it a very valuable relic in the beard of the Prophet. The city is not large, though it looks so while approaching it. It has a population of about 15,000, but its houses can scarcely be seen because of the multitude of cupolas and the forest of minarets that rise from its sacred edifices. It is the most genuinely Moorish and Oriental city on earth, being not at all disfigured by the modern architecture of the unbelievers. Like all sacred cities of Islam, it is protected from defilement by a law that pre

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vents all infidels from entering it, and therefore but few Europeans have trodden its streets, and these only in the disguise of MohammedTo enter its mosques was death to these intruders. Even the Bey of Tuniș could not protect the officials of other countries from the violence of the inhabitants. The German African traveler, Maltzan, who visited it some twenty years ago with a government permit, could appear in the streets only in Oriental garb; otherwise the governor of the city was unwilling to guarantee his safety. This authority declares it the cleanest and neatest city of all Islam, being free from the ordinary filth and ruins of most African cities, and containing many large buildings devoted to the purposes of schools and other religious objects. Kairwan is the Rome of Northern Africa as regards the immense number of its sacred edifices, of which the most important is the mosque of Owaib, who was a companion in arms of the Prophet, and who brought his beard from Mecca to Kairwan in a holy war. He fell at this point, and begged that he might be buried near this sacred relic, and thus arose the mosque that contains his bones and the sacred beard.

Kairwan is not only a sacred city, but is also devoted to some prominent industries. In its bazars may be found beautiful specimens of copper utensils, that are exported to great distances, and the finest manufactures in leather. The skillfully embroidered Arabian saddles often command the sum of five hundred dollars. The famous yellow slippers of Africa are manufactured here in the greatest perfection. But all these industries are overshadowed in value by the essence of roses, or, as it is called, the oil of roses of Kairwan. This precious unction may here be obtained pure and comparatively cheap. The history of Kairwan is at the same time the history of all Mohammedan Africa in the period of its brilliancy, for in the Middle Ages this city, that now only lives in its fanaticism and its sacred places, was the mighty capital of a broad realm that was little less than Europe in extent. From here went forth the decrees that ruled all Africa from the Red Sea to the Straits of Gibraltar, and from the Mediterranean to the borders of the Desert, while Sicily, Corsica, and a portion of Southern Italy did obeisance to it. But, after the long struggles of various dynasties, it became finally an unimportant and hidden city, whose existence was scarcely known to the world.

The mighty change that it must now undergo under French rule can scarcely be conceived. As the French forces approached, the inhabitants withdrew, as it seems, without much resistance and with little destruction of the city and its monuments. The French have, therefore, a great treasure, for the meanest stone is a relic to the Moslem, and scarcely a structure is without its story. The most interesting portion of the capture to the Christian world will be the stores of Moslem lore supposed to be gathered in the libraries of its great school, for here is found the most celebrated school of the Koran in all Africa, if not in all the realm of Mohammed. Here the most celebrated scholars of Islam deal in their hair-splitting subtleties; here are found the best copyists of the Koran.