eyes of many of our own citizens to the profound philosophy which underlies the facts of our most familiar observation. Much material for raillery and a bantering spirit has been found by the orators at our town celebrations and by the jocose lovers of the quaint chronicles of the day of small things, in the excitements and rivalries and distractions which so frequently attended "Town-Meetings." Revolutions which have convulsed empires have scarce awakened any hotter strifes or intenser passions than those evolved in the debates and quarrels of our sturdy yeomanry when agitating such matters as the placing, or the pewing, of a new meeting-house, the apportioning of "a rate," the laying out of a new road, the location of a school-house, or the "setting off” of a piece of territory from one town to another. Watertown had its full share in these intestine strifes, and the more so, because, as Dr. Bond makes very clear to us, some of its leading settlers had in them a spirit of liberty and of selfwill not a disorderly, but a wise spirit, nevertheless — which often put them at issue with the court and the magistrates, to say nothing of some of "the elders," of the Bay. Now, granting that most of these local disputes concerned matters of comparatively trifling importance, and that the passion connected with them was wholly inflamed by the debate, not at all by a rivalry of interests which would still be subsidiary to the public good, it was a great thing to have a debate, to teach an honest and well-meaning set of men how to use their tongues, how to marshal their logic and argument, and how to gain skill in the ordering of affairs. Those who learned the arts of rhetoric and oratory in these schools were prepared to take their seats in "the Great and General Court" of the Colony, and, in process of time, to form legislatures and congresses and conventions. The train-bands of our towns were under drill for the minute-men of the Revolution, and the minute-men served a use till an army could be organized. Nor has there yet been raised an issue in the halls of Congress at Washington, which had not been substantially anticipated under other circumstances and in reference to other parties, by debates in our colonial legislatures when they were composed of town deputies and public magistrates.

What with questions of "foreign policy" raised by our diplomatic relations with the Dutch on our borders, providing for warlike campaigns against Indians and Frenchmen and for self-defence, the organization of judiciaries, the regula tion of the fisheries, amending constitutions, and intermeddling with the sovereign prerogative which relates to the currency, it might be fairly proved that our ancestors two hundred years ago discussed in their town-meetings every subject which now engages the tongues and the ears of the members of our national legislature.

It is of the men who laid the beginnings of a wise and a most successful scheme of self-government in one such community, and of the women who shared all their trials, and all their privileges, saving only the right of suffrage, that Dr. Bond has given us the " Family Memorials." If the object on which he must have bestowed several years of patient and devoted labor, wholly independent of any selfish interest, does not at once approve itself to all who are concerned in its results, we certainly will not undertake to plead with them for him. Here is a volume which tells all the known truth concerning the almost chance company of men and women who, coming together for one purpose, yielded all their strongly marked peculiarities of character to a paramount aim, the loftiness and purity of which indicate that the ruling element in them all was a noble one. There was among them no dull uniformity either in prejudice, superstition, or bigotry. Their many differences indicate their entire independence and their scrupulous fidelity to conscience. And curious it is to note how a skill and aptitude for all the needful forms of service required in an orderly community, as it seats itself for a permanent home in a wilderness, were developed in wise directions in its individual members. In leaving England, the first care of a company intending to exile themselves was to secure a "minister" and a "smith." Emergency and opportunity were expected to develop a practical talent for the various other professional and mechanical occupations of men. The "gifts," which might have lain dormant and wholly unexercised had the exiles remained at home, came out here to good purpose. The wind was too inconstant and fickle a work

man to answer the need of early settlers, and therefore to dam the little tributary stream and to produce a miller became prime objects. Surveyors were made almost impromptu. Every good wife was expected to be a good spinner and One of the smaller but most essential articles which the new settlers needed was ink; for they knew that, as they were living for posterity, they must be men of records. On the fly-leaves and covers of books, and the backs of letters, and in epistles passing between friends, there are innumerable instances to be found of "an excellent recipe for ye making of inke." The same emergencies and opportunities created excellent school-teachers, cordwainers, architects, - given to consulting strength rather than grace, rope-makers, tailors, navigators, and a native growth of ministers. And all the circumstances of inherent quality and local condition and practical necessity developed a race of wise legislators, men who could be trusted with authority, because they were willing to be subject to it, when it was just.

Sir Richard Saltonstall is the leading character in Dr. Bond's great book; and a noble man he was, and well does the fine portrait of him perpetuate to us his look and mien. The minister, Rev. George Phillips, who came with a diploma from Caius College, Cambridge, to exercise his gifts in the wilderness, exercised them to a good purpose. He deserves the credit if there be credit in it of being the teacher even of Winthrop in the true principles of the independency of the churches. In the lineage of the Browne family in England we find the celebrated but calumniated founder of the "Brownist" sect, and in the New England lineage of the same family are named honored and useful men and women who have spread themselves over the land to its great benefit and their own praise. Dr. Bond gives us some very pertinent and quite satisfactory information touching Richard Browne, over whom Winthrop leaves some shadings of report and opinion. Moses Brown, of Beverly, the merchant, and the patriotic soldier of the Revolution, was one of his descendants. This family traces its descent from a gentle pedigree in the mother country. So also do the families of Bright and Bond, who were among the first settlers of Watertown. Under the

record of the Bright family the reader will find an ancestor of good repute in England, among whose descendants here are our two Presidents, John Adams and John Quincy Adams. And yet, so exacting is the law of candor in a faithful genealogist like Dr. Bond, the register of the family contains this record: "Henry Bright, Sen., in the town record sometimes called 'Old Bright,' died in Watertown, Sept. 14, 1674, ' above a hundred years old,' according to the town records, and one hundred and nine years old, according to the county records. Owing to his great age and indigence, he was taken care of by the town for some time previous to his decease. His inventory amounted to only £2 9s. It included 1 pair of shop-shears,' rendering it probable that he had been a tailor."

We may not have treated with sufficient seriousness in all our remarks this exacting and painstaking pursuit of the genealogist. But as we have turned over the pages of Dr. Bond's volume, we have admired his devotion to an honorable and a useful cause. Though we have none of our own kith or kin in his pages, we happen to know of some of the families of numerous connections whose genealogies he has recorded at length, and the question has often risen to our minds, How could he, living in Philadelphia, have learned all these particulars so accurately? Judging, then, from his accuracy in cases known to us by particulars, we may venture to praise his volume highly for this paramount quality. If but a tenth part of the number of those for whom he has so diligently labored return him the slight recognition of their patronage, his volume will have a wide circulation. The historical information to be found in the Appendix is of the highest value to a larger circle of readers.

ART. IV. - Du Vrai, du Beau, et du Bien. Par M. VICTOR COUSIN. Paris: Didier, Libraire-editeur. 1853. pp. 494.

Ir must be agreed, by all sound thinkers, that philosophy, in its speculative no less than in its practical direction, is one of the cardinal interests of man. In its briefest and yet ample statement, it is the effort after truth. This effort, however, is something more than a rude and untaught impulse, something more than a bold grasping after certitude amidst mystery and doubt. It is a deliberate and persistent search, - a search claiming alike energy and patience, and which, while it implies the highest mental industry, demands the most watchful avoidance of chimeras. This endeavor is legible throughout the ages. Its instinctive and blind attempts appear in the earliest foretime of the race. On the farthest confines of the ancient world we find it. There come down to us with the first traditions of men the names of professed seekers after knowledge. Along all the centuries of social progress we trace their unbroken line. These are the guides and teachers of humanity, the interpreters of the world without us, the revealers of the laws and relations of the soul.

A widely accredited opinion ascribes to philosophy an Oriental and almost primeval origin. But the best-fortified position seems to be that, in its genuine type, it began amongst the Greeks with Thales. Passing down from him, it reached its grandest and consummate style in the fine brain of Plato. Platonism holds the central place in the realm of the pure reason. It is alike a fulfilment and a prophecy. It gathers up and unfolds the scattere hints of Parmenides and Zeno who went before it; and it embraces plainly, in its comprehensive sweep, the rudiments of all that generous science which now dignifies humanity. Here, in this broad and profound scheme, with all its germs and tendencies, lies the unity of human wisdom. Rejecting the partial expositions of the sects which followed Socrates, the higher and universal genius of Plato reviewed the whole domain of thought. He rose above the narrow and uncertain ground of experience, and mounted to the wide and firm region of the conscious