Conscience, thus, instead of being a separate and independent faculty, is, as Dr. Hopkins also places it, a function of the moral reason.  Into the courts of this reason come not only the higher indications of will, but also the impulses of appetite, instinct, and affection,—­not moral in themselves, indeed, but yet assuming the garments of morality as seen in this high presence.

That which was made fundamental by Kant, in all that he has left on the subject of Moral Philosophy, is the position that it is wholly to be developed out of practical reason, or will as represented in reason.  The same position is fundamental in President Hopkins’s work, and it is here that its philosophic value chiefly rests.  This position is developed in plain English, with strict scientific truth, and yet with a warm and sympathetic glow, as regards outward embodiment, that very much heightens the elevating power of the principles and conclusions evolved.  Nor is man, because of his independent personality, made to stand alone, but always is he seen in the higher and All-Comprehending Presence.  Ideal truth is reached without necessitating Idealism, and harmony is attained without Pantheism.

We have purposely confined ourselves to the most general feature of the work, because it is this which gives it its great and distinctive importance; yet the whole structure is as elaborately and beautifully wrought as it is fitly grounded in the truth of Nature.

The National Almanac and Annual Record for 1863.  Philadelphia:  George W. Childs. 12mo. pp. 600.

Volumes like this are the very staff of history.  What a stride in literature from the “Prognostications” of Nostradamus and Partridge, and the imposture of such prophetic chap-books as the almanacs of Moore and Poor Robin, to the bulky volumes teeming with all manner of information, such as the “Almanach Imperial,” the “New Edinburgh,” or “Thorn’s Irish Almanac”!  In the list of superior works ranking with those just named is to be included the new “National Almanac.”  We have here assuredly a vast improvement over anything in this way which has heretofore been attempted among us.  A more comprehensive range of topics is presented, and such standard subjects as we should naturally expect to find introduced are worked up with much more copiousness and accuracy of treatment.  It is evident on every page that a thoroughly active and painstaking industry has presided over the preparation of the volume.  Statistics have not been taken at second-hand, where the primary sources of knowledge could be rendered available.  The details of the great Departments of the Federal Government have been revised by the Departments themselves.  In like manner, the particulars concerning the several States have in most cases been corrected by a State officer.  Thus, as respects the leading subjects in the book, we have here not only the most accurate information before the public, but we have it in the latest authorized