nor pretended to be; but in amount and variety of general and useful knowledge, in quickness of intellectual perception, in correctness of taste, in the finer qualities of a poetic imagination, and in fervour and fertility of genius, he has given abundant evidences of high natural endowments and excellent culture. But better than all, he was a good, a sound, a faithful man. His superiority is not seen in any conspicuous feature of greatness, but in the fulness and proportion and solidity of his moral manliness. He was a hero of the Christian stamp; brave in the cause of virtue, without the flourish of arms; invincible in integrity, without boasting or arrogance; prompt in enterprises of benevolence, without impetuosity; patient in hardships, without the thirst of glory; overcoming evil with good, and achieving the victory over the world, with the sword of the Spirit, under the breast-plate of faith and love. same shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven.'"-p. 41-45. • The J. J. ART. VIII.-OUR REVIEWERS REVIEWED. 1. The Book Department of the Unitarian Association. I. OUR observations on the very defective Catalogue of the Unitarian Association have elicited a reply of some length from its Committee. We shall first give the letter of its Secretary, and then respectfully show it were better it had not been written. SIR, To the Editor of the Christian Teacher. The passage in your last number relating to the Book Department of the Unitarian Association was brought under the notice of the Committee at their last meeting, and I was instructed to offer some remarks in reply. Your observations on the poverty of the Catalogue seem to be founded on a misapprehension of the object with which that department is maintained, and the plan on which it has hitherto been conducted. The reason why the Catalogue does not contain the books which you mention is the very obvious one that the Association does not profess to supply the Unitarian public with works which can be equally well purchased of the Booksellers, and which could not be supplied by the Association to any advantage. The Association neither could perform, nor ever attempted to perform, the part of a general Bookseller. Its object is, as I have been accustomed to understand it, to cherish and keep before the public useful works which need its encouragement, and without its aid would sink into oblivion or not exist at all. Hence it possesses, with few exceptions, the entire stock of books upon its Catalogue, or has purchased at an advantageous price large portions of the stock. The catalogue must needs therefore be much the same from year to year until the said stock is disposed of. Some of their works may appear obsolete or even valueless. In point of importance and value for general circulation, they may bear no comparison with the excellent works which you mention; but you would not have them destroyed or considered as waste paper, especially as they come in well for gratuitous distribution, when the subscribers seem to be fully supplied. Hence the list, as you call it, of stale goods;" but let not the works which have some merit, and which have proved of some service in their time, be altogether spurned, although in a great measure superseded by superior publications on the same topics. 66 A few new additions are made to the Catalogue every year with such judgment as it is in the power of the Committee to exercise. The excellent works of the Rev. Newcome Cappe and Mrs. Cappe have this year been added, because the Committee were offered the remaining stock of these books at a very cheap rate; and it was thought that the Subscribers and friends would be very glad to have them in the condition and at the price at which they would be offered. Surely these books are well worth rescuing from the cellars of a bookseller at York and placing before the public on highly advantageous terms. This seems to be an obvious instance of the advantage connected with the Book Department of the Association, that, as a Society, it can do for works that do not deserve to be entirely forgotten, what no individual would do. In looking over the works which you have enumerated as fit for the Catalogue, some were published with a handsome list of subscribers, who thus rendered unnecessary any agency of the Association to call them into being, or give them circulation; others have been popular and profitable to their authors, and needed no support; others, such as Norton on the Genuineness of the Gospel, are much too expensive for the Association to deal with-books for the library, which no person would think of coming to the Association for. I apprehend that the subscribers to the Book Department, unfortunately not very numerous, do not generally expect a quid pro quo.' Their complaint, if they do complain, that the subscription is a dead loss to them,' is founded on a misapprehension of the object of the Society at its foundation. They must not come to the office of the Association, as they would go to a bookseller's or other shop, to get a full equivalent for their money or to get gain to themselves. When the Book Society was established many years ago, I apprehend it was not their own advantage merely which the founders had in view; but rather the circulation, the charitable and gratuitous distribution, of works on religion, which needed their aid either to be supplied cheap or to be widely dispersed. Whether the department is wisely conducted or not, whether it may be made more useful than it is, and in what way, are questions worthy of consideration; but its true end should at least be regarded, and its plan and system judged of, with some reference to the views of the original founders and its principal supporters. The plan has for some time been this-to put no work on the Catalogue which has not been read and approved by three members of the Committee; and if approved, to obtain it upon such terms as would permit of its being supplied advantageously. With regard to some of the works which you mention as fit to be dispensed with altogether, as Gabriel Watts' Words of Wisdom, Townsend's Catechism, Two Tracts by a Lady, it happened that either the MS. or the entire copies were given to the Association, and the Committee thought them worth having, and put them on the Catalogue at the price that appeared suitable. You will be glad to hear that a reprint of Mr. Yates's Vindication of Unitarianism' and ' Sequel' has been under the consideration of the Committee for months past. The learned author himself has given some encouragement towards the undertaking. But a large outlay having been made in the publication of the Greek Testament and Turner's Lives, and the returns being slow, the sales perhaps not altogether equalling expectation or the merit of the works, it is necessary to be cautious and discreet in the investment of large sums in this VOL. VI. No. 23.-New Series. I way, and we must proceed in some degree in the road in which we find the approbation of our Subscribers and the public direct us. Besides the Greek Testament and Turner's Lives, among the valuable works which we have been instrumental in calling into being or rescuing from oblivion, I would beg to call your attention particularly to Wilson's Concessions of Trinitarians, in the publication of which the Author was much aided by the guarantee of the Association to purchase a large number of copies; to the very remarkable Sermon of Dr. Cudworth before the House of Commons in 1647, well worthy of your notice; to the late new edition of Sir Isaac Newton's Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture; and the valuable Sermons preached at the Annual Meetings of the Association, which are an honour to their Authors and the Society. Permit me also to add, that the mode in which you have contrasted the large amount expended upon books with the small amount of the proceeds, might lead a person but little acquainted with the operations of the Society to suppose that the sum of £23. 16s. 10d. represented the value of all the books issued during the year; whereas, in addition to this, books to the value of £66. 9s. 5d. were issued to the Subscribers, and books and tracts to the value of £65. 13s. 8d. were distributed gratuitously to various congregations and individuals. The sale of publications which are not of an ephemeral character cannot be expected to be very rapid, and the effect of the large outlay must therefore be looked for in subsequent years. I might enter upon many other considerations which influence the Committee in their proceedings. They are at all times glad to receive hints and suggestions from friends and supporters, who have but the good of our common cause in view. They feel obliged for your review of the last report in general. It is doubtless the want of more frequent communication that occasions misapprehensions which a little explanation would easily remove; and you, Sir, as the Editor of the Christian Teacher, are well aware how important it is that we as Unitarians should strengthen each other's hands where we can do so conscientiously and effectively, causing the good work thereof to prosper, instead of overthrowing the temple we are employed in building, by being divided against ourselves. I remain, Sir, (Signed) On behalf of the Association, On the receipt of this communication, we signified to the Secretary that there was a discrepancy between his defence of the Catalogue, and the disclosures of the Catalogue itself,-but as the Letter was not withdrawn, nothing remains for us but to justify ourselves. 1. The Committee, through its Secretary, states that the poverty of its Catalogue is owing to the very nature and design of the Book Department of the Association, the object of which is, "to cherish and keep before the Public useful works which need its encouragement, and without its aid would sink into oblivion or not exist at all." Now we turn to the Catalogue, and we find it contains works of Channing, Mrs. Barbauld, Joanna Baillie, Bowring, Dewey, Ware, Acton, Lardner, Locke, Milton and Newton. Does the Secretary wish us to believe that Channing's writings, every one of which are now upon the Catalogue, that Mrs. Barbauld's Hymns, that Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity, that Bowring's Matins and Vespers, that Henry Ware's Offices, and Life, of the Saviour, would "sink into oblivion or not exist at all,” but for the fostering care of the Book Department of the Association? There are, then, upon its Catalogue books that do not require its patronage, and the question we asked, and now ask again, is, why, on the principle which admitted them, is not the number extended so as to present in the Catalogue of the Unitarian Association, a full list of the best publications on Unitarianism, both ancient and modern. Many Authors whose names are in this Catalogue will, we fancy, hear with some surprise that their works, by that circumstance alone, are saved from sinking into oblivion, or nonexistence and all those whose names are not in the Catalogue may comfort themselves with the reflection that, according to its Secretary, the Association admits no books which can live by their own merit. 2. The Committee, through its Secretary, states that the Association "possesses with few exceptions the entire stock of books upon its Catalogue, or has purchased at an advantageous price large portions of the stock." We are certain that the Association could "purchase at an advantageous price large portions of the stock" of any work which it chose to place upon its Catalogue. The proper object for the Association is not to purchase profitably, but to distribute advantageously for the interests of religious Truth. It should place on its Catalogue not the books which it can buy most cheaply, but those which it is of most importance to sell. We made no complaint, however, of what it has done, but of what it has not done. We never objected to the excellent works of Mr. and Mrs. Cappe being on the Catalogue of the Association, nor to their being "rescued from the cellars of a bookseller at York." But is it the policy of the Association to wait until books b come unsaleable, and have to be excavated out of cellars? If deserving of being on the Catalogue at all, they |