The German of this is, "Der vierte ist gleich, als, waese er sin sohn der goetter." The literal English of which is, "The fourth is like, as though he were a son of the gods." Of the English as above quoted, Dr. Clarke observes, "A most improper translation. What notions could this idolatrous king have of the Lord Jesus Christ? for so the place is understood by thousands." He says the term "signifies a son of the gods; that is, a divine person or angel: and so the king calls him in verse 28—God hath sent his angel and delivered his servants. And though even from this, some still contend that it was the angel of the covenant, yet the Babylonish king knew just as much of the one as he did of the other." The doctor's view of the sonship of Christ might have assisted in drawing out this note; but it is evidently very just, and a sufficient comment on the text.

Matthew xx, 23, "But to sit on my right hand and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it was prepared of my Father." This text is thought by some to favor the doctrine of Christ's inferiority and subordination to the Father, or to oppose his essential divinity; and to support the doctrine of election, connected with the final unconditional perseverance of the saints. The German, and every orthodox commentator I have yet seen, omits the words in italics, it shall be given, introduced or interpolated by one translator to make up the supposed sense of the speaker; and the passage can be interpreted consistently with the analogy of faith, and the whole tenor of the Bible, only by reading it as in the German. "Is not mine to give but to them for whom it is prepared of my Father." It surely belongs to Christ, as the Redeemer and Judge of men, to dispense to them hereafter rewards and punishments, according to the moral character of their actions.

The punctuation of the Scripture is of merely human authority; and in many places a slightly different pointing gives an entirely different meaning to the passage. Let one example suffice for

illustration.

John xiv, 2. "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." Luther placed a comma instead of a period after the word "you," ," in the first sentence; and read it in connection with the third verse, thus:-"In my Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have said unto you, I go to prepare a city for you. And were I even to go to prepare a city for you, I would come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am ye might be also." This is, no doubt, what the Saviour intended should be understood by his words; for heaven has been prepared for the rightous "from the foundations of the world,"—or, from eternity in the purpose of God. This example may teach us that as the punctuation of the Bible, as well as the division of it into chapters and verses, the summaries of the chapters, and the subscriptions at the close of the several epistles in the New Testament, is not of divine authenticity, it should influence us in our interpretations of Scripture so far only as it agrees with the context, with real or verbal parallel passages, supports the character of an infinitely perfect Being, and conduces to the glory of God, in

accomplishing or favoring the great object originally proposedthe salvation of man.

But I must close, as I have extended my observations beyond what I originally intended already. The importance of the subject is my only apology. I. H. Y.

Hollidaysburg, Pa., January 14.

MRS. SIGOURNEY'S LETTERS.

Letters to Young Ladies. By MRS. L. H. SIGOURNEY.-Fourth Edition. New-York. Harper & Brothers, 1837. Pp. 259.

THAT female education is a subject of primary importance, is no longer to be denied. Its due estimate forms one of the noblest characteristics of the era in which we live. Since the time when woman was seen "last at the cross, and earliest at the grave," no age has gone by in which her rank in the scale of being has been so duly appreciated. It is woman's own effort that has effected this change. The writings of Hannah More, Felicia Hemans, and other female authors of whom Europe boasts, have not only rescued their sex from the imputation of mental inferiority, but have shed a glorious lustre on the intellectual character of our common race, To this illustrious list, America may justly add the name of Lydia H. Sigourney.

The poetry of Mrs. Sigourney has long been familiar to the reading public. It has been generally and justly admired in her own country; and its praise has been echoed back from Europe. It displays great brilliancy of fancy, and sweetness of versification. But it is its moral beauty that constitutes its most striking charm. In purity of thought, in tenderness of sentiment, in devotional pathos-the melodious strains of our fair country woman have seldom been surpassed by any efforts of the uninspired muse.

But it is in the department of prose, that we now present this accomplished writer to our readers. The third edition of her "Letters to Young Ladies," in which the author so greatly extended and improved her original plan as to make it, in fact, a new work, was published in this city, toward the close of December last. We understand that the demand for the work was so great, that the edition, though a large one, was all sold in the course of a few weeks. The fourth edition is now published.

We mention the avidity with which this work, in its present extended and matured form, has been sought after, as a circumstance creditable to the literary taste of the age. It deals in no fiction; it recounts no romantic adventures. Its appeals are plain and practical. It treats woman, not as the gay insect of a day,

but as a rational, accountable, immortal being. It seeks not merely to gratify her fancy, but also to give expansion to her understanding, and sensibility to her conscience. It aims to make her useful and happy here, and to prepare her, by an increase of knowledge and piety, for the companionship of angels hereafter.

The volume before us treats of the acquisition of knowledge, industry, domestic employments, health and dress, manners and accomplishments, and the culture of the moral, social, and religious duties. Beside a preface, and an appeal to the guardians of female education, it contains sixteen letters addressed to young ladies, the object of which is to elevate the literary, moral, and religious character of the sex.

The author presses upon the youth of her sex the importance of knowledge. But it is not only the culture of the intellect that she urges. The education of the heart is her favorite theme. From that garden, whence come the issues of life, she seeks to root out every weed, and in it to plant and cherish every lovely flower. She presents religion decked in its own heavenly rainbow; and urges its acceptance in accents so gentle, so bland, so full of the milk of human kindness and Christian love, that we would fondly hope she could not plead in vain with the tender youth of her sex.

The style of the author is marked with the same sweetness of diction that distinguishes her verse. It is simple, precise, and yet glowing with poetic fervor. The work everywhere abounds with historical and classic allusions, evincing that the memory of the author is "rich with the spoils of time." But we proceed to sustain our remarks by extracts from the work.

In her preliminary address to the guardians of female education, the author shows the influence of woman on society, especially under a republican government; and hence she infers the paramount importance of her intellectual and moral culture. The address throughout is very eloquent. We select a large portion of it in the following copious extract.

"Is it not important that the sex to whom nature has intrusted the moulding of the whole mass of mind in its first formation, should be acquainted with the structure and developements of mind ?-that they who are to nurture the future rulers of a prosperous people should be able to demonstrate from the broad annal of history the value of just laws, and the duty of subordination-the blessings which they inherit, and the danger of their abuse.? Is it not requisite that they on whose bosom the infant heart must be cherished should be vigilant to watch its earliest pulsations of good or evil?-that they who are commissioned to light the lamp of the soul should know how to feed it with pure oil?-that they in whose hand is the welfare of beings never to die, should be fitted to perform the work, and earn the plaudit of Heaven?

"That the vocation of females is to teach, has been laid down as a position which it is impossible to controvert. In seminaries, academies, and schools, they possess peculiar facilities for coming in contact with the un

folding and unformed mind. It is true, that only a small proportion are engaged in the departments of public and systematic instruction. Yet the hearing of recitations, and the routine of scholastic discipline, are but parts of education. It is in the domestic sphere, in her own native province, that woman is inevitably a teacher. There she modifies by her example, her dependents, her companions, every dweller under her own roof | Is not the infant in its cradle her pupil? Does not her smile give the earliest lesson to its soul? Is not her prayer the first messenger for it in the court of heaven? Does she not enshrine her own image in the sanctuary of the young child's mind so firmly that no revulsion can displace, no idolatry supplant it? Does she not guide the daughter until, placing her hand in that of her husband, she reaches that pedestal, from whence, in her turn, she imparts to others the stamp and coloring which she has herself received? Might she not even upon her sons engrave what they shall take unchanged through all the temptations of time to the bar of the last judgment? Does not the influence of woman rest upon every member of her household, like the dew upon the tender herb, or the sunbeam silently educating the young flower; or as the shower, and the sleepless stream, cheer and invigorate the proudest tree of the forest?

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Admitting, then, that whether she wills it or not, whether she even knows it or not, she is still a teacher-and perceiving that the mind in its most plastic state is yielded to her tutelage, it becomes a most momentous inquiry what she shall be qualified to teach. Will she not of necessity impart what she most prizes, and best understands? Has she not power to impress her own lineaments on the next generation? If wisdom and utility have been the objects of her choice, society will surely reap the benefit. If folly and self-indulgence are her prevailing characteristics, posterity are in danger of inheriting the likeness.

"This influence is most visible and operative in a republic. The intelligence and virtue of its every citizen have a heightened relative value.Its safety may be interwoven with the destiny of those whose birthplace is in obscurity. The springs of its vitality are liable to be touched, or the chords of its harmony to be troubled, by the rudest hands.

"Teachers under such a form of government should be held in the highest honor. They are the allies of legislators. They have agency in the prevention of crime. They aid in regulating the atmosphere whose incessant action and pressure cause the life blood to circulate, and return pure and healthful to the heart of the nation.

"Of what unspeakable importance, then, is her education who gives lessons before any other instructer-who preoccupies the unwritten page of being-who produces impressions which only death can obliterateand mingles with the cradle dream what shall be read in eternity? Well may statesmen and philosophers debate how she may be best educated who is to educate all mankind.

"The ancient republics overlooked the value of that sex whose strength is in the heart. Greece, so susceptible to the principle of beauty, so skilled in wielding all the elements of grace, failed in appreciating their excellence whom these had most exquisitely adorned. If, in the brief season of youthful charm, she was constrained to admire woman as the acanthus leaf of her own Corinthian capital, she did not discover that, like that very column, she was capable of adding stability to the proud temple of freedom. She would not be convinced that so feeble a hand might have aided to consolidate the fabric which philosophy embellished and luxury overthrew.

"Rome, notwithstanding her primeval rudeness, seems more correctly than polished Greece to have estimated the weaker vessel.' Here and there, upon the storm-driven billows of her history, some solitary form towers upward in majesty, and the mother of the Gracchi still stands forth in strong relief, amid imagery over which time has no power. But still, wherever the brute force of the warrior is counted godlike, woman

is appreciated only as she approximates to sterner natures: as in that mysterious image which troubled the sleep of Assyria's king—the foot of clay derived consistence from the iron which held it in combination.

"In our own republic man, invested by his Maker with the right to reign, has conceded to her who was for ages in vassalage equality of intercourse, participation in knowledge, dominion over his dearest and fondest hopes. He is content to bear the burden and heat of the day,' that she may dwell in ease and affluence. Yet, from the very felicity of her lot, dangers are generated. She is tempted to be satisfied with superficial attainments, or to indulge in that indolence which corrodes intellect, and merges the high sense of responsibility in its alluring and fatal slumbers. "These tendencies should be naturalized by a thorough and laborious education. Sloth and luxury must have no place in her vocabulary. Her youth should be surrounded by every motive to application, and her maturity dignified by the hallowed office of rearing the immortal mind. While her partner toils for his stormy portion of that power or glory from which it is her privilege to be sheltered, let her feel that in the recesses of domestic privacy, she still renders a noble service to the government that protects her, by sowing seeds of purity and peace in the hearts of those who shall hereafter claim its honors, or control its destinies.

"Her place is, amid the quiet shades, to watch the little fountain ere it has breathed a murmur. But the fountain will break forth into a rill, and the swollen rivulet rush toward the sea;-and who can be so well able to guide them in right channels as she who heard their first ripple, and saw them emerge like timid strangers from their source, and had kingly power over those infant waters in the name of Him who caused them to flow."

The whole letter on religion is in the author's happiest manner. It seems to come from the heart, and reaches the heart. Take, for instance, the following impressive extract, designed to show how fondly the soul of the believer may cling to the image of its Redeemer when age and infirmity have palsied the physical powers, or even blotted out every earthly recollection.

"I knew a man, distinguished alike by native talent and classical acquisition. In his boyhood, he loved knowledge and the teachers of knowledge. He selected that profession which taxes intellect with the most severity, and became eminent both in the theory and practice of jurisprudence. While manhood, and the hopes of ambition, and the joys of affection were fresh about him, disease attacked him by its fearful ministers of paralysis and blindness. So he lived for years, without the power of motion or the blessing of sight. Among those whom he had served, counselled, and commanded, he was but a broken vessel. Yet light shone inwardly without a cloud. A science which in youth he had cultivated, continued its active operations, though the 'eye was dim, and the natural force abated.' Communicating power of endurance, and opening sources of profitable contemplation-it brought a cheerful smile to the brow of that sufferer, who, sightless and motionless on his bed, was counted by the unreflecting but as a wreck of humanity. And this science was religion.

"There was a man who had won eminence in the ranks of fame, and whom his country delighted to honor. Ennobled, both by erudition and integrity, he had walked on the high places of the earth, without spot, and blameless. I saw him when almost a hundred winters had passed over him. Like the aged Gileadite, he was able no longer to hear the