Excerpt from History of the Christian Church

The delay which has taken place in the appearance of this work has afforded many opportunities of learning how much this deficiency was appreciated by competent scholars in England and America. From the letters we have received, and from public journals, we might present many testimonies, not only that such a work was needed, but that nothing in the literature of the present day waq so likely to supply the deficiency as a transla tion of the work we had announced. The style of our author is especially adapted to the anglo-saxon mind; his astonishing power of condensed expression - his mathetic, if not religious sym pathics, with every variety of intellectual and moral greatness, his skilful daguerreotypes of characters by means of the trans mitted light of contemporary language, - the delicate irony and genial humor which pervade his descriptions, - the picturesque liveliness with which a single character or incident brings out the manners and spirit of an age, - the precision with which his scientific arrangement is preserved, the critical judgment with which the minutest results of recent investigations are ia troduced, -and the graceful proportion and animation with which the whole stands out before us, render his history attractive to all kinds of readers. He throws away every name or event which has no historical utility or organic life he appreciates an heroic spirit wherever it appears, and each period is estimated as nearly as possible in its own light. His is not merely a history of the hierarchy, of the nobility, or of great men, but of the Church. His descriptions, therefore, embrace especially traits of common life, the progress of the arts, and indications of advancement in social freedom. If his theological Opinions do not quite coincide with our own, he seldom, at least in this work, obtrudes them upon our attention. His object seems to have been to maintain historical accuracy, rather than to exhibit his own opinions and if sometimes our favorite characters, or views, do not appear in the light in which we have usually contemplated them, his uni form immrtiality and intelligence make us suspect our earlier judgments. N one but those who observe the structure rather than the particular dogmatic expressions of this work, will berunsm'ron's ensues.

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