as an accident, and not of its essence, what it has in common with other forms of religion.

It is impossible to shut our eyes to the consequences of such teaching as Mr. Jowett's, on those, for instance, who as clergymen are to teach others.

The views and doctrines,' considered in their positive and Christian elements, are so vague that it would be impossible for them to be held by ordinary minds. In their negative character they seem to shade off into unbelief. We do not see what standing ground there is between Mr. Jowett's views and the notion that the Christian religion is a temporary form of religion, introduced by God like the Jewish, as suited to the then state of the world, but now to be superseded by superior enlightenment, by increased knowledge of nature, and the advancement of the general moral sense by civilization. Unhappily our own country at this time does not give us much ground to anticipate any advance in this direction. But leaving these considerations, and taking docile minds who ask, What am I to believe so unsubstantial are the forms of truth, if truth they be, that an ordinary mind could not grasp them? Mr. Jowett says: There are some minds to whom it would be impossible 'to conceive of the relation of God to the world, under any more 'abstract form,' than that in which He is represented in the arguments from First and final Causes. We ask, how many minds are there who would be able to conceive of any religious truth in the subtle and abstract form in which it is represented by Mr. Jowett? The writings of Apostles, on which they have hitherto rested, as most certainly true, are represented as full of mistaken notions-and what have they left? They may well exclaim, You have taken away my God!' The idols of the temple' are the forms whereby God Himself has vouchsafed to aid His poor weak creatures in the knowledge of divine things. The Gospel is distinctively preached to the poor: and the need of the poor is shown by the very fact that mankind have everywhere filled up the desire of their eyes by imagining an outward form (of doctrine, it may be), instead of resting in higher and unseen objects of faith.' (Vol. ii. p. 475.) The writer is speaking here of the doctrine of the Atonement, of our idolatrously believing that 'He was the sacrifice for the sins of men,' instead of resting in the general notion that He performed the greatest act that ever was done in the world.' (Vol. ii. p. 475.) What doctrine is there which may not be eliminated by the same process as that by which Mr. Jowett has eliminated the Atonement; as belonging to the accidents o t the essence of the Gospel-to the form, not the substance-as

6

the generally received opinion of the time, which could not but influence Apostles as well as others?

What is to become of the Christianity of the great mass of our fellow-creatures? What is the Christianity we are to preach to the heathen? What is to be the teaching of such a person, were he a clergyman ministering in an ordinary English parish, with but few intellectual hearers? What is he to say to his people about Christian doctrines? That they have believed cunningly devised myths?—which were, in fact, to make them simple unbelievers-or is he to preach and teach the Christian doctrines as commonly received, on the ground that it is good for the people, though he believes it not? It is the people who compel the priests to liquefy the blood of S. Januarius. In what can this end but heartless unbelief? Men cannot go on always preaching vaguely and indefinitely, decking out the cold doctrine of Unitarianism in the terminology of Evangelicism, and so-called Spirituality, uttering unbelief in religious language and a tone of earnestness. The time must come when Englishmen will ask their teachers, What they do believe? and the answer must be, That they do not know.

1

NOTICE S.

THE spread of neology is not an unmixed evil. It makes us feel the large extent of common ground between ourselves and some from whom we are at times compelled to differ. Among books calculated to call forth such sentiments, we may mention, with great pleasure, one by the biographer of Mr. Bickersteth, Mr. T. R. Birks, entitled 'The Difficulties of Belief in connexion with the Creation and the Fall.' (Macmillan.) Without binding ourselves to the immediate acceptance of every position in this interesting little volume, we may yet express our hearty approbation of its tone. Mr. Birks' suggestions may occasionally seem bold, but they are very ably reasoned out, and never, we think, pass the limits of a reverent and Christian philosophy. We fancy that something might be said upon the argument in pp. 94, 95, in favour of the common view. The sin of the rebel angels was (unlike that of Adam) committed with a resolute, unrepenting will, with no excuse of an external tempter, and in the immediate presence and full fruition of God's glory. And while we agree with Mr. Birks in reproving all such denunciations of traducianism as he has quoted in p. 162, and admit the force of much that he has urged on its behalf, we think that he has in turn spoken almost too strongly the other way. But these points do not affect our general verdict.

The Rev. J. Penrose, who was Bampton Lecturer at Oxford so long ago as 1808, has produced a volume concerning natural and revealed religion, which he entitles Faith and Practice.' It shows that the writer still retains great mental vigour, can make good use of his classic stores, and keep au courant with the scientific and historical literature of the day. But we must add with regret that his language respecting the central verity of the Christian Faith, the Incarnation, does not sound to our ears safe or satisfactory.

:

'Dorothy a Tale,' (J. W. Parker,) is of a high range of excellence; not the less so because it recals several of our favourites. Dorothy herself is a sort of Christian Die Vernon; in some of the Selby family we are reminded of Miss Burney; and Miss Young's manner of bringing out character by long and very domestic conversations is not so much imitated as acquired by this writer. There are delicate shades and nuances which lady writers alone can attain; and though their writings generally display the laboured and repeated stippling which is required to produce effect, the effect is produced. For plot, generally speaking, and invention, they have not sufficient sinew; but in telling and distinct conception of a single character, and illustration of it by minute touches, they are unequalled. We class this tale very high in its display of artistic powers.

If, which is not our case, any are persuaded that the Psalms can be translated into English verse, Archdeacon Churton's 'Cleveland Psalter,'

perhaps the very best among the praiseworthy attempts to do a thing, by the nature of language, impossible, constitutes their best argument. To such, a selection from it, in a cheap form, published by J. H. Parker, will be a valuable gift.

Mr. James Anderson's solid and comprehensive History of the Colonial Church,' (Rivingtons,) has reached its third volume. The present instalment is chiefly concerned with the New England Church, the fortunes of which are brought down to the inauguration of the Anglo-American Episcopate. Although we cannot award to its author much praise, either for style or arrangement, and though with him the historical muse eschews any lofty flight, we are glad to say that a conscientious examination of documents, and a careful and candid estimate of facts, are always to be found in Mr. Anderson's volumes. A writer who is never betrayed into enthusiasm, and who does not feel strongly enough to become a partisan, is generally to be trusted in his facts. Of these Mr. Anderson is full, not lucidly arranged, or always, as we think, apprehended in their full significance. But they are there. We must say for Mr. Anderson, that the leaden atmosphere of the times of which he writes, the eighteenth century, very possibly exerts its influence over his pages; but there are few indications that the annalist feels that there are influences at work under this dull crust ready in the fulness of time to burst out into a bright and living flame.

Mr. Jelf's edition of the Ethics'. (J. H. Parker) strikes us as being rather below the mark of the Oxford study of Aristotle. It is certainly in usum Tironum, and, in our judgment, of such Tirones as are not likely to profit by this or any other system of annotation. Wherever, as far as we can see, Mr. Jelf is right, he is something less than commonplace; and not unusually when he is original he is wrong. His notes are neither scholarly nor philosophical; and, on the whole, they look very much like the first crude marginal scribblings of an undergraduate in his first term.

'Church Poetry.' (Mozley.) This simple and unambitious collection, remarkable for its uniformity of tone, and for the fact that it has revived the knowledge of many of our Elizabethan writers, is to be congratulated on attaining its fourth edition. It is a nice school-book and gift-book.

The immediate motive which has prompted Mr. Singer to publish his new edition of 'Shakspeare' (Bell & Daldy) is to be found in Mr. Collier's famous folio. Strictly speaking, the present text is only the republication of an old edition, undertaken by him in connexion with Whittingham of Chiswick many years ago: but Mr. Singer's veteran reputation was stimulated by Mr. Collier's adventurous pretender. Probably the real text of Shakspeare is incapable of recovery; or, still more probably, even in Shakspeare's own time it was not settled. The author's own copies might have varied, and, as he was constantly recasting his thoughts, did vary. Much of it, in old and uncritical times, depended on the scrupulousness or licence of actors and copyists. The author certainly did but little to secure an authorized text. The quartos look more authoritative than any

later copies; but for half the plays we have only, a book for all critical purposes about the most worthless in existence, the first folio. In this state of things, Shakspeare has been the common prey of conjectural editors. The sticklers for the first folio are refuted by the patent worthlessness of their authority; the conjecturalists, by the fact that they are only conjecturalists. In this state of things, an editor who simply exhibits good sense and modesty, and is tolerably well versed in contemporaneous literature, stands the best chance-for, after all, it is only a chance-of being right. These qualifications Mr. Singer possesses in an eminent degree. He is sober, unaffected, judicious; and he has produced an edition portable, cheap, and singularly unencumbered with critical impertinences. The labours of his coadjutor Mr. Watkiss, who furnishes introductions to each play, and a biography of Shakspeare, are remarkably stupid, yet very pretentious. We should recommend Mr. Singer, in a future edition, which we hope to welcome, to get rid of this nonsense. If we are to have excur

suses and introductions, Knight's are the best.

Mr. Nugee, who in a practical work has shown an appreciation so keen of the wants of women in the work of penitentiaries, has earned the right to make the female character an especial subject of illustration and instruction. In his Holy Women of the Gospel,' (Masters,) we recognise warmth of style, a sound grasp of doctrine, facility of illustration, and warnings warm alike and practical.

A series of Lent Lectures' (Masters) on death-bed warnings, by the same writer, and in some respects a companion volume, strikes us as having attained the right pitch-not enthusiastic, but warm and affectionate.

'A Concise View of the Doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration,' by Mr. W. H. Hicks, (Masters,) really contains a great deal of matter. It is too closely reasoned for a tract, and too condensed for a treatise, but is a useful syllabus of the subject.

A noble edition of Adams'Allegories, (Rivingtons,) designed for a Christmas book, reached us too late to be acknowledged last quarter. Some accident, we believe, delayed its publication; but it is an edition of no temporary value or purpose. It enshrines what is a household book in Church families, in a suitable casket. The engravings on wood are among the best among many competitors. With the landscapes we were especially satisfied: the distance and atmospheric effects are quite charming. A pleasant memoir of the respected writer is prefixed.

We

Another Christmas book is Mr. Kingsley's Heroes.' (Macmillan.) like it much better than his prejudiced, one-sided, affected, yet often powerful, ' Westward Ho!' In the 'Heroes,' Mr. Kingsley relates some of the old and better Greek myths, in the form of children's stories, with considerable taste and good feeling, and always with great power of language. But how is it that, in this writer, one always feels that he is condescending? There are some writers of the day-Mr. Kingsley among them—who say good things and true things, but have a very provoking way of dealing out instruction. They are our betters and superiors, much more learned, and kind, and good than ourselves. But they know it-and somehow we find