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Wesley, Junr., 6; Samuel Wesley, Senr., 1. The remaining 28 by various authors.

We have thus rapidly glanced at the poetical productions of these highly gifted men, in the consecutive order in which they were issued from the press. For many very valuable remarks and critical observations, we must refer the reader to the volume to which we have been indebted so largely.

In the third part of his book, which occupies the larger half of the whole, our author notices each hymn in our standard collection, with the name of the writer when ascertained, and remarks critical and explanatory. The hymns of which the authorship is still doubtful are the following:

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We agree with our author in doubting, from "internal evidence,' whether Charles had any hand in the production of these lines, although it appears in the volume published by the brothers in 1748. "The poetry is of very humble pretensions."-Meth. Quar. Rev., April, 1844. For the same reason, as before intimated, we doubt the authorship of

"86. How happy are they,"

and see not why the doubt in the one case is not as well authorized as in the other.

"124. My hope, my all, my Saviour, thou,"

is also by an unknown hand. We have met with it nowhere previous to the date of the hymns published by Bishops Coke and Asbury; and the same may be said of

"139. In boundless mercy, gracious Lord, appear."

The parody on the national anthem,

"248. Come, thou almighty King,"

was first published by Madan, and written perhaps by a correspondent whose name is, and will remain, unknown. It is not found in the English Hymn-book, but will probably remain in ours, says our author, "so long as we shall continue a church militant." We have no recollection of ever having heard it sung.

"273. O thou God of my salvation,"

is another, of which the authorship is unknown. The last two

*This is our author's own language; although, in his "list" on pp. 84, 91, the hymn is not referred to, leaving it to be understood that then he deemed it unquestionably Charles Wesley's.

stanzas are inferior to the others. It is found in the volume prepared by Coke and Asbury; as is also

"391. Peace, troubled soul, thou need'st not fear,"

of the writer of which we are also ignorant.

"487. All hail! happy day,"

was written, we should say from internal evidence, by the author of 86. They are in the same metre, and several parallels might be pointed out. Thus compare verse 1 of 487,

"How can we refrain

For to join the glad strain,"

with verse 2 of 86,

"When my heart it believed,

What a joy I received."

The expletives are in each case equally necessary, and equally expressive.

So again, notice the fire of the poet in verse 6 of 86,

"My soul mounted higher

and in verse 7 of 487,

In a chariot of fire;"

"He kindles the fire

Whom the nations desire."

The curious reader may trace other coincidences, and will perhaps concur with the sentiment of the critic, who declares that "fire will not melt out of him the opinion that Charles Wesley's muse had nothing to do with the doggerel." The best hymn in the volume among those of which the authorship has not been ascertained is

"547. My span of life will soon be done.”

We have met with it in no other collection, and our author has been equally unsuccessful. Bating the suspected Calvinism of the fourth stanza, it is, by many of our people, much admired. Hymn 587,

"Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing,"

is also of doubtful origin. Something similar may be found in Rippon's collection, from which possibly it may have been manufactured.

Here we take our leave of this interesting and instructive volume. On several points of criticism we should differ with our author, and we doubt the correctness of his decisions as to the origin of a few of the hymns in our collection. It is more than probable, however, that he has reasons for his opinions which we should not be able, in all cases, successfully to controvert; as he is not only in possession of the largest collection of Wesleyan poetry to be found on this side of the water, but has devoted more time and attention to its study than any man, we suppose, in either hemisphere.

ART. VIII.-Loiterings in Europe; or, Sketches of Travel in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Prussia, Great Britain, and Ireland. With an Appendix, containing Observations on European Charities and Medical Institutions By JOHN W. CORSON, M. D. One volume, 12mo., pp. 397. NewYork: Harper & Brothers. 1848.

JOHN MURRAY's shop in Albemarle-street has afforded the materials for many nice books of travels. His Hand-books are so convenient that the tourist who is bound either to write long letters home for the amusement of his friends, or to make a book for the benefit of the community, would condemn himself for neglect of duty if he did not make good use of them. It is not a little amusing to track one of our reporting travelers through the little red-backed books of Mr. Murray, as the great bibliopole delights to be styled.

Now Dr. Corson cannot be so tracked; and we are glad to be able to say it. His book is anything but a mere string of favorite sights, gazed at with guide-book in hand, and described, or rather written about, accordingly. A great deal of it, to be sure, is made up of description; but it is the clear, graphic description of a man with an eye for what is before him in nature and art worth seeing and telling about, not merely for what has been written down beforehand for the use of the market. It is no easy matter to say anything that people will listen to on themes so often handled; and our author knows it :

"Not an inoffensive citizen can dress in black, addict himself to books, and cross the ocean, but on his return, through kind persuasive friends, he is in danger of writing a book of travels or delivering a public lecture. Yet every day makes the task of gratifying this thirst VOL. VIII.-39

for something new more difficult. It is hard to shine when the firmament is full of stars. It is not easy to catch the public ear when it is sated with eloquent sounds."-Pp. 310, 311.

The readers of the Christian Advocate and Journal will remember the series of graphic letters from Europe which appeared in the columns of that journal under the signature of "J. W. C." some two years ago; and we are sure they will be glad to learn that those articles are now put into a more permanent form in the volume before us. But a very great part of the work is composed of entirely new matter, some of it, indeed, much surpassing in interest and effect anything that appeared in the earlier letters. As a specimen of the pleasant and easy style of the writer, take the following-his entrance into Vienna, and first impressions there :

"We were unpacked from the cars and transferred to carriages drawn by horses, with which, in three or four hours, we scaled the mountains, and took the railroad again on the other side. All the passengers seemed inveterate smokers. There was a regulation posted up in the cars obliging all persons to use pipes secured with a cover or lid from causing accidents by fire, and forbidding smoking, except with the consent of the company; but the inhalers being an overwhelming majority, always ruled. It was intensely cold; and the atmosphere inside the cars was at times perfectly thick and dismal. Though never yet a partaker, I have always enjoyed the sight of the pleasure of smoking in others. I can conjure up the faces of dear friends that have never beamed so kindly, never seemed so contented with this sorrowful world, as when, after a social repast, or in the dim twilight, softly as the sighing of a fairy, curled from their lips wreaths of peaceful smoke. But my liberal sentiments were in vain; and, more than the most delicate German lady, I coughed and panted for an open corner of the window. Indeed, the ladies seemed to have admirably disciplined themselves to the puffing propensities of their partners.

"At last we reached Vienna in the midst of a furious snow-storm. I escaped from the cars, and took up my quarters at a clean, spacious hotel, as I fancied in the city. It was only the Vorstadt, a sort of outer city, extending like an immense suburb a little distance round the ancient walled city proper. Between this outside city and the inner one, there is an immense pleasure-ground a quarter of a mile wide, laid out with walks, and ornamented with trees, and extending like a belt round the whole of the old city. It is used for military exercises and other purposes, and gives Vienna a different appearance from any city in Europe, constituting an immense breathing place, as it were, for the citizens. After crossing this broad, vacant space, you come to a ditch some twenty or thirty feet deep, inside of which are the defenses of the old city walls that anciently resisted the Turks; and you enter by gates and gloomy passages into the Paris of Germany. Within, all is bustling gayety. Only with the evidences of

the lively pursuits of pleasure, there is more of stately magnificence than in the French capital. It is situated in the flat basin of the Danube, about two miles from that noble stream. The streets are narrow, but very cheery; the shops splendid; the houses massive and lofty; and the streaming of gay throngs, and the dashing of rich equipages through every passage and square of the central or old city, keep the stranger in constant excitement."-Pp. 223–225.

But we wish especially to call the attention of our readers to the Appendix to this volume. Many have written about Paris, Rome, Vienna, &c. You can have "descriptions of travel," "pencilings by the way," &c., to your heart's content, in many other books; but we know of no other book except this in which you can find condensed into a few scores of pages a satisfactory account of European charities, institutions for the poor, and of foreign hospitals and schools of medicine. Indeed, much search through various books would not enable one to gain the same amount of satisfactory information on these interesting topics. It is real, practical, and useful knowledge which our author here gives us; and he deserves our thanks for the close observation with which he gathered his information, and the skillful and perspicuous way in which he has set it forth.

The first lecture treats of charities for children. Our readers will be interested in the following description of what our doctor terms a "nursing society" in Paris:

"As you go from Pont Neuf to the Sorbonne, in one of the closest quarters of Paris, near the Rue de la Harpe, you may ascend a flight of stairs and enter a suite of rooms filled with cradles, swings, and toys. It is one of the establishments for the children of poor laboring women, termed crèches, or cradles. Any mother having four children, and in indigent circumstances, is allowed, without charge, to deposit her infant offspring during the working hours of the day, while she goes out to earn something for their subsistence. Nurses are hired to attend them, who feed them with milk and suitable diet; the mothers briefly visit them occasionally during the day, and at night return to take them to their homes. Sundays and holidays, of course, these curious infant asylums are empty..

"Imagine, for a moment, the busy scene. The head-nurse is bustling about in the midst of her extensive family, as anxiously as a hen with too many chickens. Some are strengthening their limbs by crawling, and others their lungs by crying. A group are gathered, like lambs in a fold, in a sort of circular crib, forming a Juvenile Mutual Amusement Society. One of the nurses, perhaps, is teaching very young ideas how to shoot' in natural history, by showing a wooden horse, and another is giving lessons in music on a drum. A few of the older children, who can just walk, are prattling away, and remind you of the

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