22 FEBRUARY 1868, Page 22

Human Society : its Providential Structure, Relations, and Offices. By

F. D. Huntingdon, D.D. (Miall.)—This book contains eight "Graham Lectures" delivered at Brooklyn, New York. Haman society is treated in them as a divine appointment, a living instrument of divine thought, a discipline of individual character and a school of mutual help; in relation to social theories, and to the intellect ; as subject to a law of advancement, and as the sphere of the kingdom of Christ on earth. All the lectures are more or less interesting ; some are especially happy. The third, perhaps, pleased us most, though this, too, partakes of the sketchiness which marks the others, and is not wholly free from fallacy. We allude more particularly to the censure of those forms of speech which are one way or another scarcely separable from social life, and which need little more than the curb of good-humoured satire to keep them from being really offensive and burdensome. Most readers can see this for themselves, and we need not fear that Dr. Huntingdon's book will work a sudden revolution. It may, however, bring about some reforms, and this is not its only merit.