tion, dauntless courage,
untiring energy, and a natural, perhaps national, love for horses and
horsemanship, we doubt not he is one of the best cavalry officers in our
service. He has long chafed under a forced inaction, and, full of
unselfish devotion, burns to do and dare in what he believes to be the
cause of freedom and humanity. May he soon add fresh laurels to his
glorious Springfield wreath--and may the same gentle chronicler again
twine them for his brave brow!

SUBSTANCE AND SHADOW; or, Morality and Religion in their
Relation to Life: An Essay upon the Physics of Creation. By
HENRY JAMES. Ticknor & Fields, Boston.

We advise such of our readers as take interest in metaphysical theology,
in the vexed questions of the origin of evil, of free will, of God's
communication with the spirit of man, of the growth of faith in the
soul, to read this book for themselves. We are not Swedenborgians,
though we believe Swedenborg to have been a great and good man; we do
not deem ourselves able to pronounce upon the truths or errors
elaborated in the pages of Mr. James's book, but we feel convinced that
its author is as sincere as able, and that he really aims at reaching
the heart and marrow of his important subjects. His argument with the
German and Scotch philosophies is profound and skilful. He is a believer
in revelation, in its unfolding a true philosophy of the Infinite;
showing how the infinite is contained in the finite, the absolute in the
relative, not spatially or by continuation, but by exact correspondency,
as the soul is contained in the body. He always steers clear of the
shoals of atheism, and of the dim and chaotic abysses of pantheism. He
is often obscure, but has the power to be concise and luminous. His
style is vigorous, though we object to the meaning he attaches to two
words very dear to the human heart: for _religion_ is not _ritualism_,
nor is _morality_ made of the starched buckram of _selfhood_. Religion
is love to God--morality, love to our neighbor. We differ from him in
many of his positions, his standpoint is not ours, but he struggles
bravely to rescue philosophy from a degrading bondage to sense, and to
restore her to the service of revelation. No analysis within our present
limits would avail to combat the errors, to make manifest the truths
contained in the book, nor do we feel ourselves competent to undertake
the task.

If the lucid and vigorous writer, author of the art