which the topics of
consideration come within the scope of this magazine.

MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE AND TRIALS OF A YOUTHFUL CHRISTIAN, in Pursuit of
Health, as developed in the Biography of NATHANIEL CHEEVER, M.D. By Rev.
HENRY T. CHEEVER. With an Introduction by Rev. GEORGE B. CHEEVER, D.D.
New York: Charles Scribner.

We have laid down this book, after attentive perusal, with the feeling
that among the many things to be learned from it, one stands prominently
forth,--_the beauty of family affection in a Christian household_. "To
our _Beloved_ and _Honored_ MOTHER, these Memorials of her
Youngest Son are affectionately Dedicated." Here we stand at the
foundation stone, and are not surprised afterward to see taking their
place in the fair edifice of family love, "stones polished after the
similitude of a palace."

The history presented in this memoir has no startling incidents. The
subject of it, a beautiful and promising boy, full of life and
happiness, is suddenly smitten with a disease which hangs like an
incubus upon his progress through life, and terminates his course just
after he has entered successfully on the practice of the medical
profession, in the island of Cuba, led, as he had previously been, on
repeated voyages across the ocean, by the hope of permanent benefit from
change of climate. Scattered through the book are descriptions of
scenery, observations on men and manners, and pleasant narratives, which
give variety to its pages, but its charm rises in the character of
uncommon loveliness which it presents; in the unvarying cheerfulness and
patience with which the young sufferer met pain, disappointment of
cherished plans of life, defeat and delay in his efforts for
intellectual improvement, separation from the friends to whom his
sensitive spirit clung with a tenacity of affection which is often
developed by suffering, but which seems to have been an original element
in his nature; years of banishment from the home circle, and at last,
_death_, away from every friend, on the ocean, which he was struggling
to cross once more that he might breathe his last sigh on his mother's
bosom. The conscientiousness, the integrity, the simplicity of this
young Christian are as beautiful to contemplate as his elasticity of
spirit, his cheerful submission, and his resolute determination to be
all that, with the shattered materials, he was capable of making
himself. His patient efforts, retarded by his severe suffering