ployed by these rival claimants for the guardianship of Alban's faith occupy no incousiderable number of pages, are introduced into every variety of conversation, and are perhaps displayed in as fair a manner as the author's violent religious prejudices will allow. Mr. Huntington has not intended to be impartial in his summary of contending reasons and irreconcilable claims, and if he had meant ever so well, the colloquial form of argument is the worst he could have chosen. And the reader cannot help noticing how, throughout this book, the opponents of the author's religious creed are made to utter not only sentiments open to attack, but sentiments which no one possessing common sense can for a moment tolerate. On one side piles of false logic are heaped up for the express purpose of being battered down by the artillery of the other. And the points assailed are so weak, that in their easy overthrow we are tempted to overlook or over-estimate the quality of the ammunition by which they are destroyed. Controversalists have a vast advantage over militants in a more sanguinary warfare, in the power they possess of locating their opponents. Many a pusillanimous and unskilful captain would make short work with braver men, if he had the privilege of bringing them before his muskets in such quantities and with such a disposition of their ranks as were most satisfactory to himself. It is easy to destroy either an army of men or an array of opinions which you have set point-blank to your fire, and have incapacitated for resistance. "You see," said the painter to his shaggy guest, "that in this picture of the man bestriding the lion, I have represented the supremacy of our species over your own." "True," was the reply; "but give me the brush, and I will paint you the lion bestriding the man!"

Mr. Huntington's hero is converted by tedious and circuitous processes, and his final deliverance from error is attended with a good deal of restless and worldly ambition. But in his heroine he has given us his ideal of a beautiful and perfect change from Protestant error to the blissful and unmarred serenity enjoyed by the faithful of the Romish Church. In defiance of parental authority and adverse circumstances, Mary De Groot determines to become a Roman Catholic; at untimely hours and at inclement seasons, attended at one time by her servant, at an

other by a group of domestics met by chance in the street, without counsel at home and unacquainted with influential members of the Church, visits mass and waits with all humility and zeal upon the ministrations of an obscure missionary priest, in whose teachings she has discovered a spirit and a reality which she has never before witnessed. Her mental exercises are described with great minuteness. That part which consists of feeling and emotion is natural and not without attractiveness; that which is made up of reasoning and internal argument is not only unsatisfactory to us in accounting for her change of belief, but is so weak that we wonder how it could have seemed convincing to herself. From first to last, during her transition struggles, the externals of religion share her attention equally with its inward truth. The comparative baldness, the scanty vestments of one religion repel her, and she turns to another in which, besides all that the first possesses, she finds the invigorating aids of unusual and sacred raiments, august and mysterious ceremony, and a well-fortified claim to the most hidden secrets of all its devotees.

Such is the character of this book. It is a narrative of a peculiar religious experience, which may or may not have been originally passed through by the author, but which is evidently proposed to the admiration and the imitation of those who read it. The synonym attached to the title, "Alban," might have been "The Difficulties of Protestantism," or the book might have been entitled "Romanism made Easy;" and if a few pages of irrelevant matter had been omitted, and dialogue been substituted for narration, it might have appeared as a polemical pamphlet. And as a direct controversial treatise, we think it would have had much more influence. Its sentiments might have been more masculine, its attacks upon opponents more open and pointed; and above all, its opinions would have been invested with a sincerity and an authority which in their present dress, however much they may deserve, they cannot obtain.

At the risk of uttering a truism, we will say that fiction is not a legitimate means by which to argue or enforce doctrines. Fiction may very properly be used to inculcate sentiment, or to revive old and universally admitted truth, but it manifestly parts with its

night, particularly from the malice of demons and the assaults of evil spirits, there was a scream in the kitchen, followed by a crash of porcelain and a heavy fall. Alban sprang to the open door; the tea things were half off the table; some broken cups and plates strewed the floor, and Mrs. Cone was endeavoring to save others which were just on the point of falling. Dr. Cone concluded his prayer rather abruptly, and the family sprang to their feet with a variety of exclamations.

"I told you that you had come to a strange house, Mr. Atherton,' said Dr. Cone, passing his hand over his forehead, and drawing a deep sigh.

"Oh, look what they have done in the parlor !' cried little Rosamond Fay; and Alban, turning, beheld, to his astonishment, all the heavy chairs in the room behind him piled one on another, nearly to the ceiling, the stool of the piano being perched on top of all.

"Who are they? Alban innocently demanded

of the child.

"The Spirits!'

"My daughter!' said Mrs. Fay, reprovingly; for the little witch clapped her hands with glee. "It seemed indeed that the devil was really in the house. The tea table was again lifted up at one end, sending some half-dozen more cups and plates upon the floor with a crash; the pretty Harriet, while picking them up, screamed, and cried out that some one pinched her; Bridget fell

upon her knees, and began to call upon the Virgin and saints for help; and in the midst of all, a noise like some heavy body rolling down stairs was heard in the front entry or hall, the door leading from which into the parlor was suddenly burst open with violence, and Alban's trunk hurled into the room as if from a battering-ram. The hasp of the lock snapped with the violence of the concussion, the lid flew open, and with another turn the entire contents of the trunk, consisting of books and clothes, were scattered over the carpet. Alban flew out of the room, and up the stairs, but in a few minutes returned with an aspect of blank astonishment. He had found the outer door of the hall bolted on the inside, and every thing in the story above quiet and orderly as a sepulchre. "The loud and deafening raps now recommenced below, and from several quarters at once, on the table, on the floor, the walls, the doors. Some were feebler than others, and they were repeated at longer or shorter intervals, and the family lis

tened in silence. Dr. Cone and the females were

pale, and even the children began to look fright ened. The youngest boy sobbed, and having seized Alban's hand, held it with a convulsive force. Little Rosamond alone, although excited to the last degree, and clinging to her mother for protection, showed more curiosity than fear; and all at once she approached Alban and the little boy, who still grasped his hand, and whom our hero had taken upon his knee.

"What is the matter with your clothes, Eddy? she said. She touched the little fellow, but in stantly drew back screaming, and ran away, covering her eyes with both hands.

"The boy's garments were cut in strips from head to foot." (Pp. 427-429.)

This reminds us of what is reputed to have occurred in the Phelps family at Stratford. But this is only a beginning. The spirits wax more violent day by day, and make the house of poor Dr. Cone an object of most unenviable notoriety. An Episcopal clergyman, Mr. Soapstone, is invited to disperse the unwelcome visitors by an exorcism more solemn and unfamiliar than simple prayers for deliverance. But the spirits show no veneration for Episcopacy. The table on which Mr. Soapstone has deposited his service is upset in the midst of his exercises, and his surplice catching fire from an overturned candle, he is nearly burned alive. The defeat of the minister is signalized by an uproar which surpasses all previous efforts of the mischievous spirits. In the midst of the confusion, the family are startled by the arrival of a Catholic priest, whose carriage has The just broken down before the door. stranger is informed of the cause of the disturbance which meets his eyes, and smiles at Mr. Soapstone's vain attempts to quell it. A conversation ensues, in which the disrespect of the spirits for the attempted exorcism is thus explained :

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things to diabolical agency,' said Mr. Soapstone, My greatest difficulty in ascribing these is the absence of apparent motive. Satan, why should he play such tricks? They are unworthy the prince of darkness.'

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Well, I think there are several clear marks of his presence,' returned the clear-headed student: 'a power above human; malice in its use; a restraint upon its exercise; and a general tendency of the whole in the long run to glorify the Eternal Ruler by whom it is permitted." ton, that these infernal powers are permitted to "Yet seems it not strange even to you, Atherdefy and insult our religion in any form, to mock it by sacrilegious representations?"

to travesty the priesthood, the sacrifice, and the "Not stranger than that heretics are permitted Sacrament of the Lord's Body, in their profane and perverted rites. Is it not enough,' said Alhan, upon men, but you expect the very devils to revere warmly, 'that you impose your trumpery notions the cheat! Earth, no doubt, has some respect for solemn shams; Hell has none!" (Pp. 468, 469.)

Mr. Soapstone having left the field, the priest commences his exorcism, having first confessed Alban and given him the absolution of the Church. As might have been expected from Mr. Huntington's power to influence over evil spirits as he sees fit, the invest any one of his characters with as great disturbances are at once quelled, and the house is declared free from demoniac perse