academic learning, engaged in the honourable competition of literary emulation.' We can quite understand that there are many people who have very positive reasons for sneering at 'the absorbing engagements of human science, and the increasing thirst of literary distinction.' Our own pages have shown that we cannot agree with Mr. C. B. Pearson, in his 'Thoughts on the Management Clauses,' (Cleaver,) but we must do him the justice to say, that he has written a well-tempered pamphlet. Mr. Pearson seems to feel that, with our present divisions, the proviso of giving the sole management of schools to clergy, who may substitute Dr. Watts's Catechism for the Church's.... and who, perhaps, being friendly to the Evangelical Alliance, would neither teach the creeds, nor the liturgy, nor recognise the distinctive doctrines of the Church of England,' p. 14, is as great a risk as that of a managing school committee. He also hints that ' circumstances might arise' when the 'exercise of a visitorial power by a Bishop,' might be far from the most impartial and satisfactory mode of settling disputes,' p. 19. So he thinks that, on the whole, the chances for orthodox schools are as great with lay as with clerical management. Archæologia Hibernica,' (M'Glashan,) is a very usable manual of Irish antiquities, Pagan and Christian.' The author is Mr. W. F. Wakeman. Irish Ecclesiology'—to adopt a term which we are nearly driven into, much as we dislike it—yet asks an historian. That Dr. Petrie is quite capable of the work, we fully believe. The engravings of the present little work are good, and the illustrations most important. The patriotism of Ireland is taking a very practical line in its historical and antiquarian investigations: this will serve as a set-off against certain other phases of the national character. ‹ The Servant's Claim upon the Christian Master,' (Longman,) is an important subject not very well treated by Mr. C. Sangster, Curate of High Hoyland. 'The English Reformation,' by Mr. Massingberd, (J. W. Parker,) has reached a second and much enlarged edition. The work is too well known to require more than this announcement. A pretty book has appeared,‹ Songs of the Holy Land,' (Ollivier.) To say that it reproduces Lockhart and Macaulay, is what the writer would as fully admit, as we could urge. In poetry, as in painting-we are not ashamed of the hacknied parallel—art has schools: if we cannot get Giotto, or Raffaelle; Giottesque or Raffaellesque, as they call them, are admirable things in their way, and, to all but practical critics, or the keenest judgments, nearly as good as the original types. So these poems are very,—not more than, but still,—successful academy studies after the 'Lays of Rome:' it is a good school, and pleasing in all its scholars. An objection has been made against this collection, as against all scriptural poems: if good for anything, it lies also against scriptural paintings; for, surely, a poem is only another form of picture, or, rather, picture and poem are only a meditation realized; an idea embodied. That there are some Scriptures too sacred for mere verses, a rendering of a portion of the Canticles, p. 56, which ought never to have been written, proves. Altogether, we feel in the volume a deficiency of nature: the pieces are clever echoes, but hardly natural songs. The diction and costume are not quite oriental: ex. grat. in one of the most spirited, the Battle of Gilboa,' the whole scenery is classical: the tumultuary fights of Palestine were never characterized by the legionaries' serried strength'-the Tall groves of glittering lances, Long walls of brazen shields.' Again: neither Seir nor Jael are monosyllables; the conventionalism which has appropriated such words as Saul to this incorrect form, must not excuse the vulgarism which we detect in— Who smote the might of Amalek in Kishon's pleasant dale, But as we would be on good terms with the author, and desire that our readers should share in our general satisfaction, we will extract the dignified opening and conclusion of Mr. Wilson Evans is one of whom no Churchman can speak in other language than that of distinct respect. Of his 'Scripture Biography,' the first two series appeared, and with good success, many years ago, in Rivingtons' Theological Library. We have to announce the publication of a 'Third Series,' from the same publishers. The same warm glowing language, the same fecundity of illustration, marks the continuation. But we cannot conceal from ourselves the need of a more chastened severity. Mr. Evans has, in his late publications, avoided what, we think, are grave defects of composition in his former works: but, in the present volume, probably for the sake of symmetry, he has returned to his early and gaudy manner. His colours are too rich and fervid: his narrative lacks repose and unity of design. He neglects drawing and outline. As has been said of Shakspere, he hunts a metaphor to death; no matter where it carries him, he will see the last of a figure. An illustration of our meaning occurs at pp. 329, 330.' Its (Crete's) maritime situation lay open to the free imporNO. LX.- - N. S. M M tation of all that was bad in the known world; for so, alas! it is, that good is always an export, but hardly ever an import. How should it be, when human corruption presides over the custom-house of the world?' This is a cold concetto worthy of Cowley, or rather of his imitators. Of other glittering passages of questionable taste, this specimen occurs at p. 19: 'Verily, the law is not dead. It is alive along its whole line of history. Trains of events from brilliant cars. Characters are their drivers: and all is heavenly spectacle, holy shout, and inspired agitation.' At times, Mr. Evans writes so rapidly, that he leaves grammar behind him. Here Moses commenced the second period of his life, which includes three, of forty years each,' p.30. Three what?—' periods,' of course; but 'period' is the only antecedent. And, which is a more serious objection, this pleasing author trusts too much to his own acuteness and sense of the picturesque, too little to the received and Catholic interpretation. Of course, Scripture must, in Scripture biography, be interpreted at once in a work of this character we do not expect all the interpretations. But, in announcing a sense of very serious and important passages of revelation, some hints ought to have been given that the interpretation adopted by Mr. Evans is not the only one. Thus, in the matter of the Three Holy Children, Mr. Evans asserts without hesitation, or apparent consciousness of the difficulty, that the fourth personage seen in the furnace was the second person of the Trinity. If we are not mistaken, the general stress of Catholic authority interprets the appearance of a created angel. It is certain, as Dr. Mill somewhere reminds us, that there is very great danger in systematically resolving all Angelophany into a manifestation of the Trinity; and he strongly condemns Bishop Heber, among others, for this fault. At any rate, in this particular instance, Mr. Evans will find the authority, perhaps the preponderance, of very great names against him. Neither can we concur with Mr. Evans in classing' the works of the Schoolmen' with 'the childish legends and quibbling comments' of the Talmud, p. 288. A single page of Thomas Aquinas, or of Peter Lombard, would be well bestowed on a writer so right-minded as Mr. Evans, and we should have been spared his contemptuous question, 'Where are the works of the Schoolmen? Where they always will be, among the Church's most treasured possessions. But let us part from Mr. Evans in a respectful attitude. We have gathered so much, both in the way of instruction and interest, from his many beautiful works, that we almost shrink from criticism in the case of one whose reputation and gifts are so deservedly valued. But to be only just, his very faults are winning, and his style attracts and retains the reader, in spite of the difficulties urged by his judgment. And of all our present writers, none are more consistently pious and practical than Mr. Evans. by Mr. Alfred Gatty, is very To speak in botanical nomenWe miss Quasimodo, and the 'The Bell; its Origin, History, and Use,' properly published by Bell, of Fleet Street. clature, it is a monograph of the genus Bell. bells of Notre Dame—also some allusion to the pretty tunes which used to be played on a frame of hand-bells about London, some years ago. The book is a most pleasant and readable one. We present Mr. Gatty with a classical eulogy from Persius, of which he will appreciate the conceit, Mr. Bennett has edited-we do not know who is the writer of a first volume of Lives of certain Fathers of the Church,' (Cleaver,) chiefly for the instruction of the young. It provokes an obvious comparison, under which most writers would fail, with the Church of the Fathers.' A duli or unprofitable book on such a subject were impossible: the present is more than this. It is attractively written, and quite answers the object which it proposes. A foot-note at p. 11, is so awkwardly worded, as to seem to make Petavius-M. Denis Petau, the Jesuit, whom Bull found such satisfaction in goring-an early writer of the fourth century. Dr. Wordsworth has published a sequel to his 'Letters to M. Gondon,' (Rivingtons,) in which he takes occasion to reply to his Reviewers, among whom as we have not been, we stand in an impartial position. It is an able collection, though we should have preferred less asperity of tone. Recent events have done much to help Dr. Wordsworth's argument as to the 'destructive character of the Church of Rome in polity,' i. e. state polity. The conduct of the Clergy in the present revolutionary débacle, we may acquire a clue to; but, at present, it utterly staggers and perplexes English Churchmen. 'Ecclesia Dei,' (Longman,) ought never to have been written. 'The Lord of the Forest and his Vassals,' an Allegory, (Masters,) is quite an average specimen of the allegorical class of compositions. The amiable and warm-hearted author of Proposals for Christian Union,' which we have spoken of with sympathy, has pursued his subject, in 'Claims of the Church of Rome considered with a view to Unity,' (Darling.) Feathers dropped from the dove's wing deserve to be treasured, and if we are not so sanguine as Mr. Appleyard, it is a difference between us, because we rest rather upon the judgment than the feelings. We cannot see the encouraging tokens on the other side, which we would gladly detect. Such facts as the gradual extinction of the Parisian school of the Sorbonne divines—the expansion given in some quarters to the extremest theory of the cultus of the Virgin and the Saints-the policy of adopting both Bossuet and Petavius, Möller as well as Bellarmine, the principle both of Mr. Newman and Vincentius, according to emergencies the singular fact that the present chaotic state of Europe must be traced directly to Pio Nono -the anti-monarchical principles in state government which are so freely embraced where they can be made subservient to the consolidation of a still sterner spiritual autocracy—these are things which we cannot ignore. Neither must the identity of principle between Bunsenism and the prospective development of doctrine be forgotten as a very serious omen against the likelihood of comprehension. Another pleasant selection from Andersen, 'The Dream of little Tuk,' (Grant and Griffith,) with curious illustrations by Count Pocci, has come out. The adaptation of Chamisso's story of the Shadowless Man,' is clever. Mr. J. B. James has published 'Thoughts on Passages from the Fathers,' (Rivingtons.) Being entirely of an ethical character, they cannot but be sound and practical. It is not an attractive book: each thought being only a sort of attenuated sermon-a sermonet, as we once heard such compositions called. 6 The Services at the Communion Table considered, by Philo-Biblion,' (J. W. Parker.) A re-opening of the discussion on the Rubric question will remind some of Ritt-Master Dalgetty's Bows and arrows! ha! ha! -have we Robin Hood and Little John back again?' Philo-Biblion is a bold man, although 'not in the habit of writing for the public eye, as the deficiencies in style and in language, and in the want of arrangement of his little book, bear full evidence,' as he candidly (p. 9,) and truly, assures us. He considers the characteristics of 'Gospel doctrine to be their clearness and simplicity,' p. 26. He also has 'reason to fear that some of the Fathers, whose authority is now quoted'' may be included in the censure of St. Paul, as having at the time when he wrote already fallen away from the true faith,' p. 7. On the Vestment question, Philo-Biblion is great and original, especially on the 'obligation of the minister to retire to change his dress at the end of each service.' 'The gown,' we are informed, has been substituted for the hood in the pulpit,' p. 30. About what he calls The Communion Table,' a word which does not occur in any rubric or ritual direction of the Church whatever, here is a new view: The table ought to be prepared for communion at the end of the service for the Decalogue,' p. 35. Unless the table is prepared for the communion, there is no Lord's Table,' p. 43. 'Psalms are to be sung while the minister is arranging his dresses, and changing his situation in the Church,' p. 31. In our ignorance, we had thought that the common Sunday office consisted of three parts—Matins, Litany, and the Liturgy: it is quadripartite, we find; the office for the Decalogue . . . . cannot be considered part of the Sacramental Service, but must be taken as a separate and distinct office,' p. 30. Having substituted the term ' reading-desk,' for 'reading-pew,' in the Commination office, our author decides that 'desk' means 'an enclosed seat;' and' that a movable lecturn,' (sic,) always has two desks to sustain the Bible and the Prayerbook,' p. 97. Perhaps he derives this word 'lecturn,' from to‘turn :' as his objection is something about 'the minister turning his back,' and ' returning to the lecturn.' Probably the book is only an elaborate satire upon the literature of the party whose rubrical views it professes, or pretends, to represent or caricature: certainly, 'the defectiveness of arrangement, the deficiency of style, the feebleness of argument, and the inelegance of language,' (Pref. p. v.,) which the author, no bad judge, owns to discover in this little work,' are characteristic enough. A judgment pronounced in such a quarter we are not called upon to disturb. 6 A 'Bengal Civilian' has favoured us with Some few Thoughts on Reason, Revelation, and Faith,' (Smith, Elder and Co.) This writer has mistaken his vocation; he may be a very good civilian, but he is a very heretical theologian, having compounded into one unpleasant puzzle, Sabellianism, Pelagianism, and Socinianism. For the former element he professes himself indebted to Dr. Whately's discussion of the word 'Person.' Mr. Grover, of Hitcham, has published a thoughtful and curious pamphlet, 'A Voice from Stonehenge,' (Cleaver.) Only the first part has appeared. The writer traces Druidism to the Panchæans of Ceylon, mentioned by Diodorus Siculus. He has strangely misunderstood one phrase of Diodorus, (lib. v. c. 42, tom. i., p. 364, Ed. Wesseling,) anо yàp тoû ñрòs ȧvatoλas |