are fresh in thought, interesting in style, novel in treatment, and earnest in spirit. There is a tone of reality about them. It is good to be able to welcome such utterances from the Church of England. Like most modern sermons, however, the form is greatly subordinated to the substance. The style is too diffuse. One wearies of so much iteration and expansion. However we pardon everything to a man who has something large and noble to say and who says it with such earnestness of purpose.

GODET ON FIRST CORINTHIANS.*-All students of the New Testament who would use this work, are already familiar with Godet's works on Luke, John, and Romans. Any detailed notice is, therefore, rendered unnecessary. This commentary which covers eight chapters of the epistle, is marked by the same characteristics which distinguish the author's other works. The most noteworthy of these are, deep reverence for the truths handled, keen spiritual insight, and an earnest effort to set the contents of Scripture into close relation with the Christian life of to-day. We esteem Godet second to no other commentator when the whole purpose and general uses of the interpreter's work are considered. He does not equal Meyer in critical acumen; nor Weiss in the nicer refinements of exegesis; nor Ellicott in subtlety of analysis, but he is superior to any of these in expounding the spiritual content of Scripture. Godet is an able scholar and critic, but does not throw textual and grammatical criticism into the foreground. We do not think him so reliable in this field as Meyer or Weiss; particularly is he open to criticism for his persistent adherence to many readings which rest upon the authority of the Textus Receptus instead of upon that of recent textual scholarship.

The purpose which Godet has set before himself in his commentaries we believe to be the true purpose of such works. This is, preeminently, interpretation. The resources of critical scholarship should be the means to this end. This is noticeably the case in the commentary on this practical Epistle of Paul which deals so largely with vexing questions of principle and conduct. The venerable author merits the thanks of all Biblical students that he is still pushing forward his exegetical labors and so honorably meriting the blessing of those who "still bring forth fruit in old age." GEORGE B. STEVENS.

* Commentary on First Corinthians; by F. GODET, Professor at Neuchatel. Vol. 1. T. & T. Clark: Edinburgh. pp. 428. C. Scribner's Sons. New York.

HINTS ON WRITING AND SPEECH-MAKING.*-This is one of the Hand-book Series. Its contents, consisting of two short chapters, originally appeared as magazine articles. Col. Higginson always speaks with good jupgment and taste upon literary questions, and these hints are of value to the literary novice, as coming from a man who has had considerable experience in the matter of which he speaks.

SELECTED ESSAYS OF JOSEPH ADDISON.-These "readings" are selections from Addison's essays and are designed for the pupils of the Chautauqua School. The volume itself is one of the Chautauqua Library Series. The selections seem to be made with good judgment, being taken from those essays with which the reading public has become most familiar and which are supposed to illustrate most worthily the excellences of Addison's style. They illustrate the literary virtue of simplicity, and are a good antidote for literary pomposity.

* Hints on Writing and Speech-Making. By THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. Boston: Lee & Shepard, Publishers. New York: Charles T. Dillingham, 1887.

Selected Essays of Joseph Addison, with an Introduction by C. T. WINCHESTER, Professor of English Literature in Wesleyan University. Boston: Chautauqua Press, 117 Franklin Street, 1886.

ARTICLE I.-THE PROGRESS OF NEW ENGLAND AGRICULTURE DURING THE LAST THIRTY

YEARS.

Agriculture in Some of its Relations with Chemistry. By F. H. STORER, S.B., A.M., Professor of Agricultural Chemistry in Harvard University. 2 vols. 8vo. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1887.

THE farmers of the country will hail with great satisfaction Professor Storer's two volumes on "Agriculture in some of its Relations with Chemistry," which has been recently issued from the press of Charles Scribner's Sons. Until recently they have suffered, more even than they were aware, for the want of an accurate and scientific agricultural literature. Such as they have had has been largely the work of European authors. Many of the best modern treatises upon subjects relating to farming have been written in foreign tongues, and even when originally in English, or translated into it from the German or French, they have but partially met the wants

of American readers. To be of greatest advantage to these the author must know them and their surroundings better than a foreigner usually does or can.

The American farmer prefers to learn from an American teacher. Professor Storer addresses his own countrymen, and they more willingly listen because of this relationship. Such works as this and those of Professor Johnson are a Godsend, and will be valued more and more in successive years. If, indeed, a generation hence, the experiment stations recently provided for by Congress, shall, by careful experimentation, greatly broaden the present limits of agricultural science, none doubtless will rejoice more heartily than these gentlemen, or more willingly accept the supersedure of their works.

Professor Storer's two volumes embrace a wide range of subjects. He has viewed them from the standpoint of a chemist, but the reader will find that he is more than a chemist. The first contains eighteen chapters. The two first treat of the general relations of soil and air to plants, and of the atmosphere as a source of plant food. The next two take up the relations of water to the soil, and its circulation through it. In the fifth and sixth he discourses upon tillage. The remaining twelve, together with the first ten, perhaps with more propriety it may be said of the first fifteen, of the second volume, are devoted to the great subject of fertilization in its different branches. The remainder of this volume treats of the disposing of farms, the growth of crops, barley, oats, hay, and pastures.

These subjects are scientifically treated, and in language as little technical as accuracy of statement will allow. It is sufficiently popular to be easily understood by intelligent readers. The work is a most valuable contribution to the agricultural literature of the country.

Thirty years ago, a visitor to the agricultural towns of New England was likely, and in some sections quite sure, to find in progress a rapid diminution of population, accompanied by what was still more to be regretted, a deterioration of its quality. He was also quite certain to discover a lessened productiveness of the soil; barns once too small to house the crops which they were built to shelter, of capacities far beyond existing re

quirements; herds and flocks of diminished numbers and not unfrequently absent altogether; much good land not farmed at all, and very little in such a manner as to secure maximum crops; the large streams shrunk in volume by the removal of heavy forests, and brooks formerly perennial absent for the greater part of the year; the timber supply fearfully lessened, and the forest area much increased; school districts needing consolidation partly because the natural increase of population had largely failed; the price of labor enhanced by its scarcity, and farming rendered unattractive by the decaying strength and rude ways of most who pursued it. In short, agriculture had not kept itself abreast the time. "The farming? the farming?" said Horace Greeley, in 1872, to a friend sitting beside him in a New Hampshire railroad car, and observing the fields through which they were passing, "What do I think of the farming? Where? I see no farming." The sting of the great journalist's report was in the truth of it.

About 1860, thoughtful farmers of New England saw the low condition of its agriculture, and in alarm and despondency exclaimed, "What shall we do to be saved?" And to these come a response, as clear as a clarion at early dawn, "Repent of your agricultural sins and bring forth fruits meet for repentance." It was the voice of God, and those who have since heeded it, have been saved from the ruin which indolence and stupidity always engender.

Not far from this time, New England took a new departure in farming. Then-some a little earlier and some a little later new forces appeared, forces of great and lasting power which, for convenience may be designated intellectual and physical. To some of these attention is called, not only as the causes of new prosperity, but, taken in the order of their manifestations, as marks in the progress of a new agricultural development.

Among the first of these, perhaps the very first, in importance if not in time, was the advent of

1. The New Colleges of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts. In 1862, without their asking for or even desiring them, the Congress of the United States gave to each loyal State and Territory the foundation of a College of Agriculture and the