schism of the Catholic Church in the West, and in these islands in particular, does persistently present to the devout-minded Catholic, on whichever side of the dispute he may find himself ranged.

No catholic-minded man can be content-can be anything but most unhappy when he contemplates the strife, misunderstanding, bitterness, and consequent loss of power and efficiency which result directly from the present state of affairs since the time of the Reformation until now; nor can he rest from ceaseless endeavour of prayer and thought to grapple with the problem which the state of the Church presents. On one side and on the other men's minds are restlessly seeking how order may be brought out of chaos, concord out of discord-in a word, they are feeling after the possibility of reunion between those who claim, in its historic sense, the name of "Catholic." This is Mr Ward's problem, viewed from the Roman side, and approached in the spirit of a cautious liberal Catholicism. The thing that he feels he must do is to try to deal sympathetically with some of the misconceptions and prejudices which have grown and hardened in the mind of the average Englishman in respect to the theology, and the attitude of the Roman theologian, towards the achievements of science and “the accepted conclusions of the time-spirit." And at the same time he essays to sustain the hope of a more liberal attitude on the part of Rome towards the demands of contemporary learning and culture, by justifying and explaining her rigid and formal conservatism in the immediate past, and by demonstrating the fact of the slow assimilation into her theology before and during the Middle Ages of the ascertained and accepted results of human endeavour in the field of philosophy and scientific research. He uses again and again such phrases as that which stands at the head of this review. It is difficult not to be carried away by the enthusiasm of his optimism; and he sustains his expectations and hopes by arguments sound and logically developed. One cannot but feel that he has rendered a great service to the cause which he has so near to his heart, and that his optimism, which must wait many a long decade for its final justification, will yet find some measure of satisfaction in the natural effect of his reasoning on any open mind, by the removal of misconceptions and by the raising of a legitimate hope of the possibility of a better understanding on both sides. At the same time, it must be evident that the attitude of the present Pope and of the Holy Office is hardly such as to encourage the hopes even of the most moderate of liberal Catholics. The quotation from the Encyclical of the Holy Father which stands at the head of this article is distinctly reactionary in tone; and the treatment which has been accorded to the Abbé Loisy seems to indicate, as might easily have been surmised, that there exists in high quarters a clear animus against the work of that band of and brilliant scholars who in France, Germany, England, and young America alone are doing something in the direction in which the argument of Mr Ward moves.

It is interesting and noteworthy, although Mr Ward's argument

moves on very much the lines which M. Loisy adopts, that there is not apparently any direct recognition in these essays of the immeasurably valuable contribution which this learned priest has made to contemporary criticism of the New Testament; and yet it is impossible to believe that Mr Ward is not conversant with his work, or is unconscious of the close analogy which exists between his own line of thought and that of the author of Autour d'un Petit Livre. He notices Sabatier's Esquisse, Harnack's Dogmengeschichte; he quotes Professor Caird and Lux Mundi ; and in each he finds some endorsement of the view which he adopts. But of M. Loisy there is no word, and one apprehends here an intelligent anticipation of events, which results in the preservation on Mr Ward's part of that silence which charity and a due sense of selfpreservation enjoin, in respect of the Damned.

Mr Ward's argument is admirably set forth in an elaborate, scholarly, and lucid line of argument in the four principal essays of the book. And I think it may fairly be said of the others, brilliant and interesting as they are both in their subjects and treatment, that they are entirely subsidiary to the one idea which is elaborated in the first four. These"The Time-Spirit of the Nineteenth Century," "The Rigidity of Rome," "Unchanging Dogma and Changeful Man," and the "Foundations of Belief" together with the essays on "Two Mottoes of Cardinal Newman" and “Newman and Renan," form the pièces de résistance of the volume, and in them the main thesis is admirably set forth and maintained. Briefly, the argument runs thus :

The evolutionary view of the world and of society is the "new framework" in which the spirit of the nineteenth century has taught us to place the phenomena of the universe and the facts of life.

We view the universe statically no longer, but dynamically. Regarding mankind as a developing social organism, which "to live must change," we have begun to realise that the same thing is necessarily true of the growth and development of human knowledge, in all departments of inquiry, and moreover that, in the general advance of knowledge, all ascertained truth in any one department of science must ultimately have its effect in modifying or endorsing conclusions provisionally accepted in all or any other departments of human knowledge and inquiry. From this general law theology cannot be excepted, and the recognition of it has incidentally thrown theology into some degree of confusion in many directions. For the stereotyped definitions of the theology of a former age contain incidentally, along with the truth which each enshrines, implications, characterised by a less advanced stage of human knowledge, which the common consent of the present-day mind has outgrown and is compelled to reject. This has in effect produced a degree of confusion in men's minds which rises to the point, in some cases, of sheer disbelief, engendered by bewilderment and doubt.

The argument of these essays sets itself to meet this difficulty first of all by pointing out that, though the recognition of the evolutionary

process in the development of human knowledge is but of yesterday, yet the process itself is coeval with the history of the mind of man. Therefore, this generalisation of the evolutionary process reveals the fact that the theology of no age can have been unalterable or final in its terms; that, if a work of discrimination seems to be required to-day, in the face of the wide advance of scientific and critical knowledge, a similar work of discrimination has been necessary in each successive age in the past; and that, in theological as well as in all other development of knowledge, the law of advance is that of gradual displacement, and of the substitution of new for old. Yet as the thinking subject remains constantly the same under all the external changes of form and expression which the law of life demands, so the underlying supernatural Truth remains, semper eadem, unchangeable, and yet in the ever-changing formulæ of its expression approximating more and more to the Absolute Truth, which these formulæ are ever striving to reveal to the mind, and preserve for the happiness and welfare of man. The "Depositum Fidei," however slender in its expression at the outset, implicitly contains all Truth, and in the living body of the Church is expanded and developed, as the Reality of which successive theological definitions are in turn the partexpression. Now, the evolutionary view brings it own compensation. The formula of to-day approximates more nearly to the Absolute than the formula of yesterday, but is no more final than was that. "The old idea of fixity which did not look beyond the tangible formula with their supposed unchangeable analysis is parted with. But another principle of persistency is disclosed the persistency of certain central religious ideas, reappearing in a more and more purified form under the influence alike of an exacter knowledge of the world of fact, and of the criticisms of the intellect and the moral sense: and the persistency of the law of development."

Thus on a basis of sound philosophical argument does Mr Ward preach patience to those whose faith seems to be threatened, and whose doubts are aroused by the discrepancy between the implications of traditional theology and the accepted conclusions of the time-spirit. And to those who urge the impossibility and hopelessness of the expectation that Catholic theology can ever bring itself into sympathetic and receptive relation with the progress of human thought and knowledge, who are dashed by such utterances as those of Pius X. in the Encyclical above quoted, and by such facts as those accomplished in the case of M. Loisy, he replies, first, by pointing out that the Catholic Church in union with the Apostolic See has preserved the ideal of the Church, as a growing, living organism, with a definiteness and consistency not to be found elsewhere.

And, secondly, to the charge of rigidity and narrowness as formulated by her enemies, he replies by pointing out that for three centuries and a half the Roman communion has been practically in a state of siege. Surrounded by Protestant, agnostic, and infidel armies,-the horrid brood of the Reformation and of the "licentious revel" of the human reason that

ensued upon it, she has been driven to a reactionary conservatism, a narrow exclusiveness of all that savours of novelty, and a rigid tenacity of her traditional definitions, not from choice or in time of peace, but from necessity and in a time of war. The Catholic Church has assimilated ideas and customs from every civilisation with which she has been in contact in the past; and this normal power of assimilation and adaptivity may be expected to reassert itself as the habits of suspicion and the attitude of hostility engendered by the state of war gradually give way under the influences of peace. Thus he excuses and commends to the average Englishman the Catholic attitude, taking immense pains to do so, and arguing with a conspicuous ability that should ensure a certain measure of success. The tradition of three hundred years of hostility and misrepresentation cannot be cancelled in a generation or two; and Mr Ward rightly enough deprecates the possibility of anything like corporate reunion in England at the present hour. He admits that Romans have not, as yet, mastered accurately the Anglican position and its heritage of doubt and misconception. He points out that much of the ablest Anglican argument from Church history must necessarily be beside the mark, if the evolutionary principle is to be applied to theological as to other domains of science. And in support of this he quotes St Vincent of Lerins' famous dictum that the doctrine of yesterday may be to the doctrine of to-day as the fœtus to the fully developed man; and the argument of Abbé Duchesne to the effect that the principle of regarding the explicit definitions of early Christianity as final expressions of dogmatic truth, which is applied in arguments against the Papal Supremacy and the dogma of the Infallibility, would commit the Church to Arianism, or similar heterodoxy, if applied to the doctrine, e.g., of the Trinity. On the other hand, he allows that it is not as yet possible so to unravel the tangled skeins of history as to understand how men like Tunstall believed that to remain within the English Church after the breach with Rome did not necessarily involve a separation from the communion of the Church Catholic. Taking all these and similar difficulties into account, he is at once optimistic, and yet content to await the gradual issue of the event, confident that in the long run the strong current of Catholic devotion and feeling will surely carry men on towards the only visible centre of Catholic unity; and that as the movement grows from more to more, and a better understanding arises through the pursuit on both sides of a policy of rapprochement, the ideal of corporate reunion will gradually emerge into the light and range of practical politics.

And this is the only sound and statesmanlike view of the present impasse. Individual secessions from one side or the other only serve to accentuate differences, intensify bitternesses, and obscure the real aim and goal of all patriotic Catholics. The pervert might conceivably act as an interpreter for one side to the other; in fact, he becomes usually (ipsis Hibernis Hibernior) a new obstacle to the possibility of a better understanding. The one thing worth working and praying for is corporate reunion, and of this fact Mr Ward is evidently inclined to be convinced.

The concluding passages of the essay on "The Rigidity of Rome" are instinct with just and noble feeling, and constitute in themselves an eirenicon which may be read and pondered with profit by Anglican and Catholic alike. They do honour to Mr Ward in their exhibition of a wise judgment and a temperate and sober charity, and cannot fail to carry a measure of conviction wherever they are read, and "prepare and make ready the Way of the Lord."

The space at my disposal does not allow me to say more than just a word of the excellence of the other essays. The essay on "Two Mottoes of Cardinal Newman," the clever comparison of that prelate with M. Renan, and the delicately sympathetic article on the work of Mrs Augustus Craven-these alone would suffice to commend the book to all lovers of fine and distinctive characterisation.

But, as I have said above, all these in their measure are made to subserve the main idea of the book, and each in one way or another is made to lend something of enchantment and attraction to the Church that holds Mr Wilfrid Ward's enthusiastic love and loyalty; and each by contrast or direct commendation helps to present her in the most favourable light.

Mr Ward does his work throughout with great literary skill and admirable judgment. His optimistic devotion and high hopes for the future glory of the Catholic Faith are never allowed to carry him away. He is always courteous to an opponent-reasonable and temperate, as well as learned and skilful in argument; and through all there shines a charity-so much better a thing than mere tact-that not merely disarms, but charms, and goes far to convert an opponent into a friend, even where the argument may fail to convince.

ST JUDE, BIRmingham.

ARNOLD PINCHARD.

An Introduction to the New Testament.-By Adolf Jülicher, Professor of Theology at the University of Marburg. Translated by Janet Penrose Ward, with Prefatory Note by Mrs Humphry Ward.London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1904.—Pp. xxii. +635.

APART from the various prolegomena and the index, this important work is in three parts: I. "A History of each of the New Testament Writings," pp. 32-458; II. “A History of the New Testament Canon,” pp. 459–566 ; III. "A History of the New Testament Text," pp. 567-628. We could have wished that the first part had been published separately at a moderate price-not because the other two are less satisfactory, but because they appeal to a different class; they are more technical than the first part, and, for the average reader, less easily intelligible and, we fear, less interesting. The first part-the History of the Writings-is a marvellous combination of accurate scholarship with attractive popular exposition; it represents somewhat advanced modern views, just as Dr Salmon's Introduction to the