Mars approximate to it in these particulars; how larger, more distant, and more resplendent ones, belonging to the same group, are illuminated every night, each with several moons; and how in aerolites we have metals and metallic alloys belonging to celestial regions—and then ask themselves if there is any thing unreasonable or unlikely, or if it is not in the highest degree probable and presumable, that people there add to their enjoyments and multiply their conveniences, by employing the materials and agencies placed at their disposal-in other words, that occupations akin to some of ours are followed in other spheres." It is a sublime idea that man is designed to search out the hidden uses, the latent susceptibilities of the materials with which our earth is stored, as well as to be a practical operator in their subjugation to useful purposes. "The hypothesis," says our author, "that the chief employment of man was to till the soil and raise cattle, is an unworthy one, since it puts us much on a par with the lower tribes, in making the procuring and consuming of food the principal object of our being. If we were made to live like cattle-merely to eat and sleep-it would be true, and the earth might then be considered a mere victualing institution. But, with us, and all intelligences, food is, like the traveler's staff, an adjunct of life-a mere aid in accomplishing the purposes of existence." We must have food, it is true, but we have higher functions also. One of these is the development of the forces, processes, and principles of inorganic matter, and their subjugation to the uses of humanity. Our author, like all enthusiasts, pushes his theory to an offensive, if not ridiculous extreme. Take an example. After admitting that nearly all matter is inorganic; that the whole bulk of the earth is so, except its skinlike surface, he proceeds to inquire why it is so. "What does this mean? Why all this immature matter, unless it be for man to work up? How otherwise are its quan Another result of this theory, is the recognition of unity of design pervading and manifesting itself in diversity of parts. Happily for us, the universe is not a medley of mingled purposes and disconnected things. "The unity of design manifested in it is the theme of every philosopher, and not less observable and admirable is the fine chain of relationship that binds all the diverse forms and conditions of matter in one coherent whole. There are no violent transitions from series to series, but by almost imperceptible degrees differences open into species, species into genera, and genera into wider classes. And as with the contents of worlds, so with worlds themselves; for they are merely larger divisions, and not the largest, since they merge into groups or systems, and sys-tity and condition to be accounted for?" When we read tems, in all probability, into still more and more comprehensive departments. There are no abrupt chasms in their outlines, dimensions, illumination, or movements, and by the strongest of analogies there can be none in their internal administrations. No truth is more patent than the unity of creation. There is nothing sui generis in it; nothing that stands solitary or alone; nothing that is not connected with and dependent on something elsenot a bowlder, a planet, or a sun-not an animal or the habits of one-not an order of intelligence or an occupation of intelligence." This broad view, when thoroughly analyzed-when all its parts are thoroughly studied, only renders the conclusion still more invincible, that material natures every-where, throughout all the vast universe of God, are designed to be active to labor. To repudiate labor, then, is to repudiate one of the designs of our creation. Viewed in one light our earth is a mere caravanserya temporary convenience for passing travelers, and, therefore, worthy of only a passing notice. Taken in another light, it is a theater of momentous action and of grand results, which are to be realized only by the connection of active and intelligent beings with it. Man, then, is necessary to the earth, and the earth is necessary to man. It is the manufactory; he is the manufacturer. And by working up the material before him, he not only demonstrates the unlimited capabilities of the world, but he develops also the wonderful capabilities that lie hidden in his own nature; he develops himself. The design of our mundane system is to be inferred from the materials with which we find it stored, and the attributes or adaptations of those materials. If they are indispensable to man, and yet comparatively useless till manipulated by him, then have we an indication of the original design of its Author that it should be a theater of activity on the part of man. How, then, do we find our earth? Stocked, it is true, with mineral substances of almost endless variety and number-susceptible of almost inconceivably beautiful, various, and useful applications-but alloyed, unshapen, and unwrought. Or if we look at vegetable and animal substances, elaboration is equally indispensable. this passage, we could not help meditating upon the sorrowful plight we poor denizens of the earth would find ourselves placed in were all its inorganic substances worked up into mechanical or chemical implements. To us it appears evident that the design of our great Creator had reference less to the amount of inorganic matter to be "worked up" than to the development of our powers and of its uses. In our earth we find three great storehouses of matter for the elaboration of man. These are minerals, vegetable products, and animal products. Of minerals, it is remarkable what discrimination is made by the great Constructor of the globe, so that they may be offered to man in such forms and under such conditions as to be manageable by him. In this respect there is a remarkable discrimination noticed by Mr. Ewbank. "Those that are easily dug into are homogenous, and extend over large areas, as fields of clay, coal, sand, and marl. So also with such as can be quarried, as rocks; they are in immense and continuous masses, from which blocks of any required dimensions may be takenmonolithic temples have been dislodged." Without reflection one would think it would be desirable to have the metals provided in the same way—that is, in large masses and in their pure metallic state, so that we could have the material ready for our use, instead of the ore, which must be smelted and prepared. Suppose we had the metals in this state-laid up in solid mountain piles like granite, or in thick and solid strata-what use could we have made of them? Our author says none at all. "It would have been beyond human power to have extracted a supply from them. Had a mammoth bowlder of the finest malleable iron been placed, at the birth of man, in the center of every township for the use of its inhabitants, all would have remained undiminished to this day. Like blocks of copper recently found in ancient diggings on Lake Superior, from which Indians had endeavored to cut portions with flint tools, they would have remained monuments of tantalism." Hence it is that they seldom occur except as minerals that yield to the pick, while iron, the chief of them, is found only in ores. Iron, so abundant and so indispensable, is perhaps one of the most difficult metals to reduce to a malleable state. How pregnant with meaning the fact that ore and coal for smelting it are generally found stored together in the bowels of the earth! Is there no design in such an arrangement of Deity? Another curious provision for the supply of man's want, and for his education as the grand elaborator in nature's workshop, is seen in the provision to supply him with cutting-tools. These are tools indispensable to a manufacturer in the metals. Let us see how our author states and solves the problem here presented: “If the substance be intended to cut all others, how is it to be cut? How formed into tools without the aid of still harder tools? Let it be remembered that before these queries were practically answered, the idea of giving to natural bodies qualities they did not already possess had not entered into the minds of men. Had mines of steel and adamant been provided specially for tools, the same difficulty would have occurred; for tools of still harder materials would have been necessary to shape and harden them." Here was a singular exigence to be provided for. The harder metal necessary for tools would have been useless, because man would have been unable to cut and shape it into tools. Had nature provided it in the shape of tools, that would have contravened one of the highest of its own purposes; namely, the education of man. How simple and beautiful the contrivance to meet this exigence! Iron is made capable of being hardened; and thus implements are made of it by which it may be cut, sawed, and shaped to suit the convenience of man. The discovery of the process by which iron could be converted into steel opened up a new continent of knowledge in the arts, and subjected it to the dominion of man. Fire was essential to the mechanical operations of this great workshop, as well as to the comfort of man. With out it neither earthen nor metallic wares could be manufactured. He might mold the clay into the forms desired; but without fire it would remain clay forever. Without fire, the ore would remain in its native state, and the harder minerals remain unshapen and unemployed. To man as a cosmopolite it is indispensable, and his mastery over it has not a little to do with his pre-eminence over the other inhabitants of the earth. But how was fire first obtained? Did God kindle it and favor man with the blaze? or did he simply adjust the materials, and leave man to discover and apply them? Reasoning from that which is every-where observed in the economy of nature, we should unhesitatingly infer the latter. Also, according to an old tradition, the first hint received by the primeval races upon the production of fire was the ignition of trees by the friction of their trunks or branches rubbing against each other during a high wind. Our author dissents from this suggestion, and regards the primeval mode of its production as "an instinctive suggestion." "The process," says he, by friction, and the only instruments employed two small pieces of wood. By twirling the point of a dry stick in a rude indentation made in another, or by rubbing it to and fro in a groove, sparks were evolved and flame obtained; an apparatus so simple that Indian boys and girls have been observed to prepare it by breaking suitable pieces from a branch and gnawing the pointed one into shape. Such, from the beginning, has served the wild man for a tinder-box; and thus wherever fuel was he had the means of kindling it." How striking is Ho "was mer's description of Mercury kindling a fire to roast the cattle he had stolen: "He snatch'd a branch and stripp'd the bark, "This description," says Mr. Ewbank, "is literally that of a Camanche or Apache after a buffalo hunt, or a foray into New Mexico." Some will, perhaps, object to this theory of the origin of fire, that had man been left to make the discovery, he might have suffered immensely, and many of the human race might have perished for want of fire before the discovery was made. Undoubtedly these results might have followed; but they furnish no argument against fact. Were the reader cast away upon an uninhabited island, without the knowledge of this primeval device, he might perish, as many have perished, for want of this information. Just so with the various diseases for which nature has provided ample remedies. Our ignorance of those provisions prevents our cure. In the matter of fire there are striking adaptations which, small as they seem, our author says, "have a bearing upon the general economy of the world. The conditions necessary to the evolution of a spark by friction, and to nourish it into flame, are such, we all perceive, as serve to prevent any serious results from natural abrasions. Had the necessary amount or intensity of friction been double what it is, man had made little use of fire to the present day. We do not see how, in the first ages, he could have procured it at all, nor yet in subsequent days, unless an advance in the arts supplied him with better means. Yet how the arts could exist, much less advance, without fire, it would be hard to tell. At all events, sparks could not have been drawn out of wood by individual exertion without mechanism, and what mechanism did the pure savage possess, or could he, without fire, possess?" On the other hand, had the amount of friction necessary to produce flame been less, nature would have become an incendiary herself, and flames would have been kindled every-where where there was wood to burn. Without noticing the progressive steps by which the second great device for obtaining fire was reachednamely, the flint and steel, or tinder-box-we glance at the agency of fire in promoting the civilization of the race. "Once introduced into the hut, fire came under the management of females, and wrought a revolution in previous habits. Food was no longer consumed without cooking; roots, as well as flesh, were roasted; subsequently victuals were boiled, and the phenomena of ebullition, hot water, and steam observed. Culinary utensils were devised; rude seats, tables, and beds made their ap. pearance. Natural vessels were superseded by artificial ones; earthenware caldrons succeeded those formed of skins, of the calabash, and joints of bamboo. Spinning, weaving, and knitting stepped in; and the comforts of a permanent habitation put an end to the miseries of roving the forests without dwellings or dress. Before these things were accomplished, man could have had but faint views of his destiny, none of the glory that awaited his posterity. It may be truly said, that the phoenix of the arts arose from the ashes of the domestic hearth, and that from it the first rays of science shot forth." Our limits forbid any further discussion at present of the interesting topics embraced in Mr. Ewbank's volume. In our next, however, we hope to resume the subject. Items, Literary, Scientific, and Religious. MIDDLETON & Co.'s LITHOGRAPHING ESTABLISHMENT.This establishment has grown up to be not only the largest of the kind in the west, but one of the largest in the United States. A few hours spent in the various departments will be profitably employed by any lover of the fine arts. It is exceedingly wonderful to what perfection the ingenuity and skill of man have carried the delicate processes of art. We have rarely ever been more interested than in a visit to the lithographing department of Messrs. Middleton & Co. Some idea of its extent may be gathered from the fact that it occupies the third, fourth, and fifth stories of the large buildings of Livingston's Express Company. Their lithographic printing is done on the third story. Eleven presses are here employed, with capacity for printing the largest maps as well as the smallest and finest prints. The great marvel of producing colored prints from engravings on stone is here exhibited in its highest perfection. In the fourth story we find the "Artist's Rooms." From seven to ten skillful engravers are constantly employed here. A new and beautiful map of the city of Lafayette, Ia., has just been completed; also a landscape view of the city of Springfield, O., with some of its elegant villas and private residences. They have also a view of Cincinnati, taken from one of the hills on the Kentucky side of the river. The accuracy and minuteness of detail, not only in the outline, but also in the more prominent buildings, spires, and other points of interest, is really surprising, In the fifth story of this hive of industry we find the rooms for map-mounting and plate printing, in which department they keep some dozen presses. The above is but a meager description of only one department. Their rooms for copper and steel-plate engravings are also worthy of a visit. But our space will not allow us to take our readers there for the present. Should they take a notion to go "on their own hook," they will find them in the Odd Fellow's Building, corner of Third and Walnut streets. The great lithographic work executed by this house is the series of large colored plates showing the "anatomy of the brain." Some of the most eminent medical men in the country have spoken in the highest terms of this series, giving them the credit of great faithfulness in delineation. They are said to be fully equal to the steel-plate engravings by the Lazars, of London-one eminent as a physician, the other as an engraver. They have also a large number of well-executed portraits both on steel and on stone. This enterprising house, we are gratified to learn, received from the State Board of Ag riculture the medal for the best specimens of lithography, and the diploma for the best specimens of maps. Enterprise of this kind and in this direction the west should encourage by a substantial patronage. We, however, speak of the matter not by way of advertisement, but as an interest of art, science, and, we will add, religion-for the proper cultivation of the arts has much to do with the moral and religious feelings, as well as with taste and refinement. A MAGNIFICENT BOOKSTORE.-The enterprising pub lishers and booksellers, Moore, Wilstach, Keys & Co., have recently opened one of the most magnificent bookstores to be found in the country at No. 25 West Fourthstreet, Cincinnati. If any one doubts whether the booktrade flourishes in the west, let them walk through this bibliographical temple. The building is five stories high in front and seven in the rear. It is built of a fine, lightcolored sand-stone and beautifully ornamented. In a central niche at the second story stands a statue designed to represent Cincinnatus. Within the building is light, airy, and as complete in construction as skill and money could make it. The main store-room is thirtyfour feet front by two hundred deep, having a wing of thirty-four feet extending to an alley. In making the tour of the establishment, we found the basement divided into two rooms, each one hundred feet deep. One is devoted to the jobbing department; the other to the accommodation of a number of Adams book presses, in active operation. The second floor is a fine sale-room, attractively set off with tasteful shelving, neat counters, columns, desks, etc., and is by far the most elegant room in the Queen City. The upper stories are devoted to printing, binding, and other purposes connected with their extensive publishing business. The rooms are all heated by steam, gas is introduced into every part of the building, and nothing left wanting to detract from its fitness and convenience. The hoisting machinery has been judiciously placed in the wing, thereby not detracting from the fine view, and besides enabling them to receive and discharge goods in the alley, without blockading the main entrance to Fourth. Success to our enterprising friends! PAPER-MAKING.-The consumption of paper is enormous in the United States. There are no less than 750 papermills, manufacturing about 270,000,000 pounds of paper scarcely supply the enormous demand for the article. per annum, valued at $27,000,000; and yet this will One effect of this large increase in the manufacture of paper has been to advance the price of rags. But a few years since they were thrown out as so much worthless rubbish. Now rags constitute no inconsiderable item in the small commercial transactions of the country. Let us see: it takes one and a half pounds of rags to make one pound of paper. The manufacture of 270,000,000 pounds of paper, then, consumes 405,000,000 pounds of rags, which, at the rate of four cents per pound, amounts to $16,200,000-the annual commerce in old rags. The paper manufacturers have become alarmed at the fact that the source from which they derived the mathey had regarded as unfailing, has been comparatively terial necessary for the manufacture of paper, and which exhausted-to such an extent, at least, as to render them no longer able to keep pace with the demand. The proprietors of the London Times, foreseeing the effect increasing the cost of paper to them, offered a reward of of this state of things upon their large establishment by $25,000 for the discovery of a cheap and perfect substitute for rags as a material for the manufacture of paper. Many experiments have already been tried; and though, as yet, without entire success, we may still reasonably hope, in view of what has already been accomplished, that ultimately the desired result will be attained. What man has done in the past inspires the belief that his genius is capable of further and greater achievements; that, indeed, whatever his physical and intellectual wants may crave as essential to the grand progressive movement in favor of the true interests of his race, will in time be procured and brought within the achievement of science and art. INCREASE IN THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.-From the Annual Minutes of the Methodist Episcopal Church, for the year 1854, we find the progress of the Church in membership during the year past to be as follows: CONFERENCES. California. Members..... Total. Increase..... 1,438.... 61.... 1.599.... 211. Baltimore...........65,964....8,489....74,453....1,352. Oregon............... 1.182.... 336.... 1,548.... 627.. Philadelphia........49,119....6,977....56,096....2,283.. Providence.......... 13,430....1,801....15,231.... 527... New Jersey. ...32,957....5,552....38,509....1,136.. Maine Decrease.... ...23,432. .3,641....27,073.... 778.. .......399 75.... .......... 9,692....1,576....11.268.... Black River.........17,125....3,072....20,197.... 879.. Ohio...... Indiana............. Michigan.. 365... 9.732....1,423....11,155.. North Ohio.. ......26,504....3.169.... 29,673.... 450.. Cincinnati... Illinois... S. E. Indiana........18.215....2.200....20.415. 41... ..19.106....3,447. ..22.553....1,882. Kentucky. ......... 2,706.... 627.... 3.333.... 955. Missouri.. 938. 4,400....1,037.... 5,437 Arkansas............ 1,629.... 412.... 2.041.... 264... Liberia.................... 1,265.... 163.... 1,428.... 119.... 63 .363 .295 Total..........679,282..104,076...783,358...32,315...1,583 These statistics, it will be seen, show a net increase of 30,732 members during the year. The number of traveling preachers in the several conferences is 5,483, of which 5,814 are effective, the remainder being either superannuated or supernumerary. There were 42 deaths among the traveling preachers during the year. The number of local preachers is 6,149. The total amount of missionary contributions reported from the conferences is $229,049. The largest amount is from the Baltimore conference, which raised $29,234. The German missions of the Church are also prosperous, and report 12,145 members, which is an increase of 1,368 during the past year. The contributions of the Germans for religious purposes likewise show a handsome increase. MISSIONARY APPROPRIATIONS.-The missionary appropriation of the Methodist Episcopal Church for the year 1855 is $260,000-the same as last year. The Church South are aided largely in their operations among the Indians by Government money, and the sum total of the missionary money expended by them, including the Gov ernment appropriations, is $160,000. Of this sum $14,000, or nearly one-tenth, is spent on the California missions, and $10,000 on the work in China. PUBLICATIONS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH SOUTH.-The Church South publish six weekly newspapers, as follows: The Nashville Christian Advocate, at Nashville, Tenn., J. B. M'Ferrin, D. D., editor; the Richmond Advocate, Richmond, Va., L. M. Lee, D. D., editor; the St. Louis Advocate, St. Louis, Mo., D. R. M'Anally, editor; the Memphis Advocate, Memphis, Tenn., J. E. Cobb, editor; the New Orleans Advocate, New Orleans, La., H. N. M'Tyeire, editor; and the Texas Advocate, Galveston, Texas, C. C. Gillespie, editor. The Sunday School Visitor is published monthly at Nashville, Tenn., by Stevenson & Owen, Book Agents, and is edited by L. D. Huston. The Home Circle, late Southern Lady's Companion, is also published by the Book Agents monthly, and is edited by Mr. Huston. The Quarterly Review is published likewise, we believe, at Nashville, and is edited by D. S. Doggett, D. D. Rev. T. O. Summers, D. D., is general Book Editor. UNITARIANS IN THE UNITED STATES.-"The Unitarian Congregational Register, for the year 1855," has just been issued by the American Unitarian Association of Boston. It appears that there are five hundred and thirty-one ministers in the order, not including Rev. Dr. Lowell and Rev. Messrs. Theodore Parker, Samuel Johnson, Sargent, Higginson, etc. Of this number of preachers, sixty-seven are at present without a settled ministry. There are 254 organized Unitarian societies in the country, including 2 in Canada-at Montrel and Torouto. There are 15 in Maine, 14 in New Hampshire, 3 in Vermont, 161 in Massachusetts, 4 in Rhode Island, 5 in Connecticut, 13 in New York, 2 in New Jersey, 3 in Pennsylvania, 4 in Ohio, 2 in Michigan, 9 in Illinois, 2 in Missouri, 2 in Georgia, and 1 each in the states of Maryland, Virginia, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, District of Columbia, Wisconsin, Iowa, Alabama, Louisiana, and California, and 2 in the Canadas. There are ten "ministerial associations;" two theological schools-one at Cambridge, Mass., and one at Meadville, Penn. The Unitarians hold "Autumnal Conventions" in each year in various parts of the country, which have been numerously attended; and also anniversary meetings in May, in Boston. OLD SCHOOL PRESBYTERIANISM.-The Presbyterian states that Old School Presbyterianism is no where taking root more rapidly at the west than in the northern and middle portions of Illinois; that the Schuyler Presbytery alone, at its last meeting, appointed committees to organize six new Churches within its bounds; and that great interest is felt in bringing up the Churches as fast as possible to the self sustaining point. DR. HAWES'S CHURCH.-Dr. Hawes's Church, Hartford, Conn., is a remarkable one. It has, says an exchange, never dismissed a pastor, though an ancient Church, and never settled one who had a previous settlement. All its pastors have died with the Church. This is a notable history. ROMISH SUPPORT OF MISSIONS.-The society at Lyons for the propagation of the faith, under the presidency of the Cardinal Archbishop de Bonald and patronage of the Pope, reports the receipt of nearly $800,000 the past year for the extension of Romanism; of this amount more than $200,000 are devoted to the support of missionaries in America! By this, Jesuits, priests, and other agents of the Roman See are enabled to operate with energy for the removal of the thick darkness shading our Protestant minds! NEW BOOKS. Ziterary Notices. exhausted the subject, and to have embodied here all that will ever be needed to a correct understanding of one of the greatest events in modern times-the disruption of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. We should be glad to say more, but our space forbids it. Let the work go abroad. PAST MERIDIAN. By Mrs. L. H. Sigourney. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. 239 pages.-We are indebted to the author for a copy of this work. The following outline of the chapters will give some indication of its contents: The A. M.'s and the P. M.'s; Old; Reporters; the Custody of Knowledge; the Beauty of Age; Air; Domestic Anniversaries; Patriotic Recollections; Accom plishments; Privileges of Age; Literary Longevity; Westering Sunbeams; About Money; the Amenities; the Pleasures of Winter; and A New Existence. Let the person on whose head gray hairs begin to predominate make this book his companion, and it will shed sunlight upon the whole period of his past meridian. Something of the beauty of its style and the interesting and instructive nature of its discourse may be gathered from a selection found in the preceding pages of this number. We have given one specimen; let us add another, which will explain itself: "The baby shall not be named after me,' said a young parent of his first-born, 'for it will be old John and young John, while I am yet in my prime.' 'I wish my son had not taken it into his head to marry so early,' said a lady in a remarkably fine state of preservation; for now, I suppose, it must be old Madam and young Madam.' The unmarried, whose recollections can bisect a century, are prone to be annoyed at the disposition to pry into dates, and are sure that no well-bred person would be guilty of such absurd curiosity. HISTORY OF THE GREAT SECESSION from the Methodist EPISCOPAL CHURCH in the Year 1845, eventuating in the Or ganization of the New Church, entitled the "Methodist Episcopal Church, South." By Rev. Charles Elliott, D. D. Cincinnati: Stormstedt & Poe.-This great work is at length before the public. It comprises a large octavo volume of six hundred and four double pages. By a vote of the General conference of 1848 Dr. Elliott was requested to write that portion of the history of the Church which related to the separation of the conferences in the slaveholding states from the jurisdiction of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and their organization into a distinct ecclesiastical connection under the style of the "Methodist Episcopal Church, South." In entering upon his work, the Doctor found himself every-where confronted with slavery. This led to a preliminary work-"Sinfulness of American Slavery"-which was published in two volumes, in 1850. The present work comprises the history of the Methodist Episcopal Church for four years, or from 1844 to 1848, with such collateral topics as are necessary to the proper elucidation of that history. The index is complete, and covers nineteen pages, giving an excellent outline of the whole work. The general subjects of the sixty chapters are as follows: Wesleyan Methodism and Slavery; Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church on Slavery; Abolition of the Slave-Trade; West India Emancipation; the American Abolition Movement; Abolition Movements in 1834; Events from January to July, 1835; do. from July to December, 1835; Events of 1836; General Conference of 1836; Events of 1837; Events of 1838; Occurrences of 1839; Occurrences of 1840; General Conference of 1840; Events of 1841; Occurrences of 1842; Events of 1843; Events from January to May, 1844; Harding's Case; Case of Bishop Andrew; Review of Bishop Andrew's Case; Determined Separation on the part of the South-the Plan; the Protest and its Reply; Events succeeding the Gen-nological matters, and whoever labors to conceal his proper eral Conference of 1844; do., continued; Action of the Northern Conferences; Action of the Southern Conferences; Conclusion of 1844; Bishop Soule; Position of Parties; Events preceding the Convention; the Convention; Review of the Convention; Bishops Soule and Andrew vs. the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church; Action of the Conferences in 1845 and 1846; Events from May, 1845, to May, 1846; the Petersburg General Conference; Review of do; Secession of Bishop Soule Proved; Southern Bishops; Infractions of the Plan; Property Question; Church Property; Relation to Church Principles; Events previous to May, 1848; General Conference of 1848; do., continued; Events of 1848; Events I of 1849; Southern General Conference of 1850; the Slavery Question in 1850; Events of 1850; the New York Suit; do., continued; Review of Judge Nelson's Decision: Outlines of the Cincinnati Law Case; the Chartered Fund; the Appeal Case; Conclusion. Then follows an Appendix, comprising some one hundred and fifty pages of important documents bearing upon the case. The work will be found clear in statement and faithful in narration. It is obviously the result of much painstaking and great labor. The Doctor seems to have fairly "Yet to cover the tracks of time, and put family records out of the way, are of little avail. There will be here and there a memory stubbornly tenacious of chro date will usually find some Argus to watch over and reveal it." For sale by the booksellers generally. PICTORIAL GATHERINGS is a charming volume for the young, recently issued by Carlton & Phillips, of New York. In it we have sketches and stories relating to the condition and customs of mankind, Christian missions, the habits of animals, and a variety of other mattersall accompanied with appropriate illustrations. THE CHILD'S SABBATH DAY BOOK, and LITTLE FRANK HARLEY, are also illustrated books issued by the Sunday School Union, 200 Mulberry-street, New York. GREATNESS IN LITTLE THINGS; or, Wayside Violets, is the title of a work "copy-righted" by D. Anderson, and published by Dayton & Wentworth, New York, and by H. M. Rulison, Cincinnati. Some one-we don't just now remember who says that as he advanced in years he found his respect for those who have not succeeded in life increasing. That is, he found greatness in character where success had not emblazoned it forth and made it known to the world. The object of this pleasant and quite readable volume is to show that true greatness |