perhaps a French gray overhead, can hardly fail to please better than the old staring white, or the elaborate, and meaningless or incongruous flourishes of the Italian wall-painters. The gilt pipes of the organ, in the recess behind the pulpit, will save that end of the house from the blank and over-broad look which it might otherwise have. If the whole finish of the house is of some of our native woods, left unpainted and simply oiled, so as to bring out the rich natural grain, an effect will be produced which will be very pleasing, at an expense very much below that of the old method of painting and graining. Chestnut is especially adapted to this. It is soft and easily wrought; it seasons well; its grain is richer than oak and of a very cheerful hue; and its first cost is now more than one quarter less than that of pine of the same quality. We close these scattering suggestions by a plan of our own, designed for use in the city, where land must be made the most of; where meeting-houses must be comely and attractive; where everything is expensive; where the pew rents must pay the cost of worship; yet where there are thousands of people in humble pecuniary circumstances, who wish, as well as need, the Gospel, but are unable to pay high pew rents; and where, therefore, great skill must be used in shaping all the elements that come into the account to a result, which shall not repel the masses from the Congregational service. We give no advice to those who are able to build, and pay for, magnificent houses. The richer the house the better, if in good taste, and paid for; with a service that may not entail a burdensome expense on the hearers. We speak for a different sphere. The soldier who was rebuked for drunkenness, told his commanding officer that "it was unreasonable to expect all the Christian virtues for $7 a month;" and so we beg the reader to remember that all the architectural virtues cannot be looked for in a house avowedly planned to furnish the most The outside is brick, of the simplest Romanesque; and the spire, (resembling that of the Church of the Pilgrims, Brooklyn.) besides having a very pleasing taper from the level of the bell-deck, is (we say it with confidence) at once the strongest and cheapest, of the height proposed, which can be built. From the brick gables above the clock, it is to be shingled with roundended shingles; and as there is neither moulding nor panel, nor pilaster, upon its whole surface, there are none of the ordinary chances for leakage, and so for expensive repair. The building is planned for a lot 100 feet square, the dry level of which is from eight to ten feet below that of the street. Advantage is taken of this fact to introduce a basement (of 12 feet in the clear) which is wholly above ground, except where the street abuts against its front; a green-banked slope, from the sidewalk height of the inner edge of each side of the lot to its level, giving the side windows of the basement air and light. The following cut will show the general arrangement of this lower story. The main stairs leading down, are in the tower. These conduct to a side passage, having on the left the Young Men's Room, 35 feet 6 inches, by 21 feet. Still further, it leads to the Infant School Room (31 feet 6 inches, by 18 feet) and on the left, turns a right angle toward the Chapel, 60 feet by 45 feet; and the main Sabbath School Room, (57 feet by 31 feet 6 inches) on the right. Stairs (a) lead from the rear entrance of the house down to the Mission School Room, (31 feet 6 inches, by 18 feet); and a separate flight takes the little children down into their room, safe from the rush of the main school. These rooms may all be thrown together by opening sliding doors (x, x, x) so as to accommodate 1100, or 1200 children. The Chapel is designed to seat 425, and may be enlarged at any moment by being thrown into connection with the Young Men's Room, or the main Sabbath School Room. Two large fur VESTIBULE. AUDITORIUM. The vestibule explains itself, and leads directly to the four aisles, and, by stairs in the tower, and in the right corner, to the gallery floor. The pews are straight pews in circular places; to be built, as suggested above, upon the chords of their arcs, instead of upon those arcs themselves. An entrance from the side street, cuts off a ten foot rear passage, which has stairs (c) to the left gallery, (d) to the Mission School Room and Chapel below, and (e) to the right gallery; with doors, each side of the pulpit, to the main floor; and with the Pastor's room (17 feet by 9 feet) at its end. Thus easy access may instantly be had to any part of the house, from either end, and the double stairways favor the easy dispersion of the audience, and are essential to their safety in case of an alarm of fire. The organist's seat (a) is (as before suggested) between the front pews; and the choir find accommodation in the pews on either side, thus clustering around the pulpit, and gaining their most effective place in the very heart of the house. The galleries explain themselves. The organ fills the recess (some 30 feet by 10 feet) behind the pulpit, and its floor is elevated perhaps three feet above the speaker's platform. There is a Committee room (13 feet by 9 feet) over the Pastor's room, and another, of the same dimensions, in the corresponding corner on the other side, over the rear entrance door. A second gallery over that portion of the first, which occupies the breadth of the tower, and lies between it and the stair lobby on the other side, will prevent that vacant look which that end of the house would otherwise get from the absence of the organ, and pleasantly seat a considerable number, at a small additional cost. The entire interior wood work-pews, pulpit, organ, gallery front, &c. &c., is designed to be of chestnut, simply oiled, and the pews to have no upholstering except their seat cushions. The ceiling is to be finished up some fifteen feet into the roof, in the center (less over the galleries) to save height of walls, and promote interior comeliness, while from the peculiar framework of the roof strength is secured instead of weakness, by the process. The walls are to be hollow, with the plastering directly upon them. By all these various economies the cost of the house (we speak from the written estimates of experienced builders,) will be brought down to something less than that which has been usual in this city for the erection of houses holding few, if any more, than one half the number who may find accommodation here. Its seating capacity will be as follows, allowing 18 inches for each individual, viz: 368 pews, containing on the main floor, 1,105; in the main galleries, 742; in the second gallery, 209; or 2,056 in all. -no person of whom, in his seat, would be more than about 80 feet distant from the speaker's lips. The average annual expenses of the various Congregational churches in Boston do not fall short of $5,000; which sum must be raised from the pews, or rest, a mortifying, and sometimes grievous, and insupportable deficit upon the society. That sum divided among 800 sittings-which is about the average number of those which are taxable in the ordinary houses, makes an average rate for them of $6 25 each, or, for a pew of five sittings, $30 75; which amounts to a practical veto upon the attendance of the thousands of families whose yearly income does not exceed $550, and who average the payment out of that of $150 for house rent, and are therefore bound to consult the most rigid economy in every particular, yet who do not wish to advertise their poverty by sitting in a free seat, or a very mean one that is not free, in the house of God. This sum of $5,000, divided among the 2,000 sittings which would be rentable in this proposed house, would make a yearly average rental of only $2 50 each (or of $12 50 for a pew for five) which puts quite a different face upon the matter. It does not seem to us an extravagant estimate, that, in such a sanctuary, a preacher might reasonably hope to have all needless impediments removed out of the way of its being said of him as of his Master, "the common people heard him gladly." The experiment of a house resembling this will at least be tried, without delay, in this city, if a Church that has long pined under the old system of big debts and high rents, can rally help enough to their poverty from those who love our Lord Jesus Christ, here and elsewhere, to pay the bills of its cost. Books of Interest to Congregationalists. MENTAL PHILOSOPHY: Including the Intellect, Sensibilities, and Will. By Joseph Haven, Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy in Amherst College. Boston: Gould & Lincoln, 1859. pp. 590. Price $1.50. We regard this volume as the best textbook in Psychology, for High Schools and Colleges, which has yet appeared in our country. It is more comprehensive in its scope, more logical and exhaustive in its classification of the intellectual powers, and more symmetrical in the well proportioned development of its various parts, than any other similar manual. The style is terse and lucid; usually simple, sometimes ornate, though never sacrificing precision and perspicuity to the graces of rhetoric, yet abounding in such apt and felicitous illustrations of abstruse points, as to be always intelligible and interesting to an ordinary reader. The author has simplified those metaphysical questions, which are too often discussed in an obscure style, burdened with scholastic technicalities, repulsive to the elementary learner. In this respect, his work presents a marked contrast to another " Psychology for Schools and Colleges," lately issued, which an irreverent and impatient critic has said "you can read as well backwards as forwards," and from which we quote a single sentence as a gem of transparency. identification of the reciprocal modification of both the recipient organ and that which has been received, is precisely what is meant by sensation." It would not be strange if such a style should suggest to the learner the Scotchman's definition of metaphysics: This Metaphysics is when he that is listening, dinna ken what he that is speaking means, and he that is speaking dinna ken what he means himself." The book before us is no mere compilation, and shows few traces of the scissors. Each topic has evidently passed through the crucible of the author's mind, and the work embodies the results of patient investigation and extensive reading, and evinces nice discrimination and philosophical acumen, and is marked by candor and fairness in the presentation of the views and arguments which the author controverts. The historical epitome of doctrines gives a brief, yet valuable compend of the literature of the subject. The analysis of each chapter, and the italicised headings of the subdivisions, will facilitate reviews and enhance its value to the student. The classification of the Intellectual powers is new and admirable for its simplicity, though we cannot accept his views of Consciousness, which he intimates is a state, and not a faculty of the mind. This view, though sanctioned by some authority, in our judgment impairs the practical value of the book. Making this faculty always involuntary and necessary in its action, he degrades the character of the only unerring witness of all our mental phenomena, and fails to indicate the true mode of questioning it, and the importance of heeding its testimony. Consciousness, it is true, exists in all men, but it is more or less distinct and vivid as it is controlled by the will. Says Cousin, "Very few know themselves perfectly, because they make use of Consciousness without applying themselves to perfect, unfold and understand it by voluntary effort." It is a fault of this treatise that it obscures this "light of all our faculties," and rejects that "philosophic and artificial consciousness," which, as Coleridge says, lies beneath, or, as it were, behind the spontaneous.' By a happy inconsistency, however, Prof. Haven often uses language which clearly recognizes consciousness as a distinct power, and admits its importance. His development of the subject of the will, is full, able and discriminating, however much we may differ from his conclusions. No topic in Mental Philosophy is of greater practical interest. Aside from its obvious relation to Theology, it underlies the whole subject of Education. Coleridge used to repeat, with much emphasis, the aphorism of Novalis, "that a perfectly educated character is little else than a perfectly educated will." The training of the will has not been duly appreciated in the work of education. It is an excellence of this treatise that it gives prominence to the educational bearings of the several topics discussed, and the true mode of developing the faculties of the mind. We are not surprised to learn that this work is already adopted in all the State Normal Schools of Massachusetts, and in some of our Colleges, and that it has had a steady and increasing sale. THE LIFE OF JOHN MILTON: Narrated in connection with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of his Time. By David Masson, M. A., Professor of English Literature in University College, London. With Portraits and Specimens of his Handwriting at different Periods. Vol. I. 1608-1639. Boston: Gould & Lincoln, 1859, 8vo., pp. 658. Price $2.75. This elegant volume is the first of three, the second to extend to 1660, and the third to 1674. "It is intended," says the preface, to exhibit Milton's Life in its connections with all the more notable phenomena of the period of British history in which it was cast,—its state-politics, its ecclesiastical variations, its literature and speculative thought." Nobly does the author fulfil his purpose. Unwearied industry in searching through the dry records out of which history is to be drawn; patient investigation into the knowledge of the underworkings of a period unsurpassed in interest in British history, and of which the present time is peculiarly prolific in new sources of information; and the fullest detail of all concurrent events which have, even in a remote degree, affected Milton, constantly appear. A flood of historical knowledge is here presented to the public. As an inevitable consequence, however, of the author's fulness, the work has in this very merit, its greatest defect. The author, able as he is, finds it difficult to group about Milton the events of which Milton was not the center. Hence we are frequently losing sight of Milton as we read graphic episodes of public affairs or brilliant sketches of cotemporary statesmen or scholars. We are too often reminded that Milton "might have seen" certain eminent men; or that "if he had gone" in a certain direction," he would have" found certain things,-like James's "solitary horseman" who "might have been seen." And yet, by a closer study than usual in this hurrying age, the reader will continually find light thrown upon some act of Milton's life or genius, even in details which, at first appearance, seem entirely apart from the great poet's life. Among the various incidental matters so excellently presented in this work, are, college life in the early part of the 17th century, a survey of English literature in the time of Ben Johnson, the then state of the Continent, the Scotch resistance to Episcopacy, (as interesting as a romance,) the preparatory scenes of the Revolution of 1640, and the administration of government by Laud and Wentworth; and not the least interesting to us is the description of the rise and condition of Puritanism, as to which, we confess, this work has given us new ideas, as it has of Williams, Laud, Wentworth and Buckingham, the men who were unwittingly, but Providentially, founding a new empire in America, and preparing the way for constitutional liberty in England. To our readers interested in these matters, this book is indispensable. A MEMOIR OF THE LIFE AND TIMES OF REV. ISAAC BACKUS, A. M. By Alvah Hovey, D.D., Professor of Christian Theology in Newton Theological Institution. Boston: Gould & Lincoln, 1859. 12mo. pp. 369. Price $1.25. Two years ago the "Backus Historical Society," a Baptist Historical organization, requested Professor Hovey to prepare a new edition of Backus' Ecclesiastical History of New England. Preparation for that work suggested the desirableness of a previous account of the Life and Times of Backus himself. Hence the present vol ume. The Society was fortunate in its selection both of author and subject. Few men are as well fitted for such a work as Professor Hovey, as the volume itself bears evidence. Written in an agreeable style, sufficiently historical, but not full of tedious details, evidently a work agreeable to the writer,-it opens with a sketch of the |