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it is to the historic student of English, especially, we believe, that a knowledge of Sanscrit is of the greatest practical benefit. S.

Literature and Fiction.

An English Version of the Younger, or Prose Edda. With an Introduction, Notes, Vocabulary, and Index. By RASMUS B. ANDERSON. Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co. Price $200.

Professor Anderson thus adds to his growing series upon Norse themes an important volume; for the Elder and Younger Edda are the basis of all we know or can know of the early Scandinavian social life and history. There is, indeed, but little material for the study of the second great Aryan immigration apart from what the Icelanders have embalmed in their Eddas and sagas. Of the progress of the Teutons westward we know from Cæsar that they had reached the Rhine half a century before Christ. Tacitus gleans a few characteristics of this strange people from Rome's military contest with them; but, except the invaluable fragment of the translation of the Bible made into Gothic by Bishop Ulfilas in 384, we have no trace or record of the resistless barbarians who obliterated the power of Rome and rejuvenated Europe. But far in the North the legend of Beowulf was saved to us in England, though emended by Christian hands, while it remained for the ultima thule, the far-off Iceland, to preserve until modern times the speech of the Northern Goths, or Norsemen, almost unaltered, and in it the treasures of legend and mythology on which its history and philology depend. The Eddas are the religious books of the Norse; hence this volume of the Younger Edda is mainly occupied with their mythology. Our author does not lay claim to original work, but to have collected and adapted material from the best authorities, and to furnish thus the most complete exposition of the Edda yet made in any language. The volume is surely not less than its pretensions. We cannot but regret that the author's enthusiasm has led him to confound the scientific interest of the Eddas with a literary value they cannot be held to possess. We should be surprised if the book "charms a single reader not in some sense a student of Northern subjects. It is impossible that it should be otherwise. The crude legends and sagas of the Norsemen never please even their direct descendants until recast by a Fryxell or a Tegnér. But the book will edify if it does not charm, and should add much to what we are glad to believe is a growing interest in Northern themes.

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Periodicals.

Church Extension Annual, including the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Board of Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal Church, for the year 1879. Church Extension Rooms, 1026 Arch-street, Philadelphia, Pa.

Says Chaplain M'Cabe: "I can secure the erection of a church every day if I only have $250 to spend in each case." Thereupon the response of the Church should be, "You shall have $250 every day in the year." The map in this annual is an outline of the entire United States, with a blue cross to indicate a Church aided by this society. Clusters of blue crosses mark particular sections, and a lonely cross or two gleams up in others. There is a nice little wilderness of crosses in the North-west, covering a large area in Iowa, southern Minnesota, and southern Wisconsin, extending southward to cover eastern Nebraska and Kansas. In the South there is a cluster in northern Tennessee, north-western Georgia, in south-eastern Texas, with a sprinkling through most of the Southern States. There are three crosses in Florida, and a lonely cross in Mississippi. Our faithful secretary, Dr. Kynett, reports that there have been four quadrenniums of the existence of the society; the first a period of doubt and danger, the second of completed organization, the third of strengthening and growth, the fourth of maturity, prosperity, and secure permanence. It is becoming, and should become, one of the mighty arms of Church aggression on the domains of sin and Satan.

Proceedings of the Twenty-second Annual Meeting of the National Association of Local Preachers of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. Held in the North Second-street Methodist Episcopal Church, Troy, N. Y., October 18-21, 1879. With an Appendix containing Reports, Memoirs, etc. The date of this annual meeting of the "National Association of Local Preachers" indicates that it has passed the period of immature youth. Its claim to a national name was sustained by membership from as far south as Baltimore and Kentucky. An able address was delivered by the president, Rev. Dr. Wheeler, editor of the "Methodist." Dr. Wheeler well argued that it was wise in the Church to maintain, in her local preachers, a body of organized lay workers, instead of being infested with a lot of irresponsible “evangelists, who are little better than tramps." He recalls to memory the local preachers memorable in our history-as Embury, Webb, Thomas E. Bond-and reminds us of numbers of living, efficient workers. He pleads, loyally, for a fuller recognition of the brave guerrilla corps by the Church mili

tant. An essay by T. A. Goodwin, on "The Coming Local Preacher," was put on file for the good-coming time when the organized auxiliaries would be a still more efficient aid to the regular army.

Twelfth Annual Report of the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church for 1879. 8vo. Cincinnati: Western Methodist Book Concern Print.

1880.

It is the school-master who is doing the noblest work in solving the negro problem healthfully for both races. The way to raise the negro is not to force him up to a position, but to furnish him with the qualification by which he can place himself there. We rejoice, therefore, that Dr. Rust is able to report a prosperous year. He presents a full view of the educational institutions that are promising well for the future. The Exodus, so far as it has extended, will have rather favorable effects than otherwise, as tending to produce efforts for a better and fairer adjustment between races. It is yet too small a movement on comparison with the great whole to produce much injury to Dr. Rust's enterprise. The addresses by Dr. Curry and Bishop Peck are able and not accusatory in spirit against any portion of the Southern people. The speakers take no pains to produce the impression that the society is aggressive against the best interests of the Southern section or of Southern Methodism.

Foreign Theological Publications.

Roma Sotteranea, Die Römischen Katakomben. Eine Darstellung der älteren und neueren Forschungen, besonders derjenigen de Rossi's. Bearbeitet von Dr. FRANZ X. KRAUS. Zweite Auflage. Herder'sche Verlagshandlung, Freiburg in Breisgau. 1879.

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The Germans have been behind the English in the special department of research in the catacombs. This work is the most thorough one produced by them, and has been prepared after laborious personal examination, and by the study of such authors as De Rossi, Northcote, and Brownlow. The treatment is broad and thorough. The introduction is after the German usage, which is a résumé of the literature of the whole subject. The discovery of the catacombs was made in 1578, and the literature has grown from a few fragmentary notices to a broad and interesting archæological science. The first students of subterranean Rome were Pomponius, Leto, Baronius, Ciaconi, De Winghe, and L'Hereux, and they died before grasping the mag

nitude of the subject which fascinated them. The work of Kraus marks the progress of the science through these three intervening centuries. After the introduction, the general divisions are: Book First, "The Origin of the Catacombs." This contains a general description of the catacombs, the political and social condition of the first Roman Christians, Roman law and usages, with reference to burials, and the beginning of the catacombs. Book Second treats the "History of the Catacombs," giving their condition in the first and second centuries; then from the beginning of the third century to the toleration of Constantine, in 312; then to the plundering of Rome by the Goths in 410; and then to the oblivion of the catacombs for a long period of centuries. The Third Book is employed entirely on the most important catacomb, that of St. Callistus. Book Fourth discusses "Ancient Christian Art," its symbols, allegorical images, liturgical tracery, and sarcophagi. The Fifth Book is occupied with the construction and development of the catacombs. Book Sixth is a full description of the inscriptions; Seventh, of the contents of the graves of the catacombs; and Eighth, a general survey of all the Roman subterranean life. The illustrations of the work of Kraus are of a high order, and are the best reproduction of the exceedingly costly work of De Rossi which has appeared. In addition to these, the author, by his living in Rome and having access to all the antiquities, and especially by his intercourse with De Rossi himself, has given many inscriptions and diagrams which had never before been presented to the public. These illustrations are of two kinds; those on wood, distributed with the letter-press throughout the work, and those in colors, on large plates, at the end of the volume. The last of these is a full descriptive map of the whole of subterranean Rome, as large and full as Murray's or Baedeker's map of the city above it. The work closes with a rich glossary, explanatory of all the inscriptions contained in the catacombs, and a copious index of the whole work. We should like to see this book of Kraus translated. It has something of the coloring which would naturally come from the Church of which he is a member, but it is of such scope and scholarship that one can readily overlook the author's confessional standpoint. To the honor of the American Church it must be added that this important study has not been forgotten by us. Withrow's work is a classic, and it is a matter of congratulation that his excellent book on the catacombs has been issued by our Book Concern.

Ursprung und erste Entwickelung der Kirche Chirsti, in Vorträgen ürber die Apostelgeschichte des Lucas. Von Dr. H. V. Andrea. Frankfort-au-Main: Heyder & Zimmer.

Dr. Andrea is a layman, who has devoted his entire leisure to theological study. He is known to Americans through his work on Job, but the present work is the ripest fruit of his busy pen. His plan is to give the argument of each section of the Acts of the Apostles, and then to illustrate and elucidate it. He does not introduce textual criticism, or broaden his pages with copious foot-notes or exegetical terms, but aims at a popular exposition of the book. He seems to have examined the whole department of exegesis on Acts, to have grouped the leading thoughts around a common point, and to aim at a forcible presentation of the general ideas of the writer. The work consists of fifty-eight lectures, each with a general title. We then have a genealogical table of the Asmonean and Idumean families, a complete table of chronology of the apostolical period, and an exceeding beautiful colored map of the missionary tours of Paul. A full index closes the work. The value of Dr. Andrea's important contribution to biblical study consists in its combination of thorough scholarship and perspicuous and popular style. We hope he will yield still more such fruit, on other New Testament books.

Miscellaneous.

The World of Prayer; or Prayer in Relation to Personal Religion. By Dr. D. G. MONRAD. Translated from the Fourth German Edition by the Rev. J. S. BANKS. 12mo., pp. 239. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. 1879.

The Interpreter's House; or, Sermons to Children. By WILLIAM WILBERFORCE NEWTON. 12mo., pp. 349. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers. 1880. Fifty Bible Reasons for Continuing a Methodist Stated, Proved, and Illustrated. By N. B. COOKSEY. Small 18mo., pp. 128. Cincinnati: Printed at the Western Methodist Book Concern for the Author. 1879.

The Chautauqua Text Books. Paper Covers. Small 18mo.-No. 16. Roman History. By J. H. VINCENT, D.D. Pp. 80.-No. 17. Roger Ascham and John Sturm. By W. F. PHELPS, A.M. Pp. 53 -No. 18. Christian Evidences. By J. H. VINCENT, D.D. Pp. 60.-No. 19. The Book of Books. By J. M. FREEMAN, D.D. Pp. 64.-No. 20. The Chautauqua Hand Book. By J. H. VINCENT, D.D. Pp. 61.-No. 21. American History. By J. L. HURLBUT, A.M. Pp. 76. New York Phillips & Hunt. Cincinnati: Hitchcock & Walden. 1879, 1880.

A History of Our Own Times, from the Ascension of Queen Victoria to the Berlin Congress. By JUSTIN M'CARTHY. In two Volumes. Vol. I. 12mo., pp. 559. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1880.

Songs from the Published Writings of Alfred Tennyson, Set to Music by Various Composers. Edited by W. G. CUSINS. With a Portrait and Original Illustrations by Winslow Homer, C. S. Reinhart, A. Fredericks, and Jessie Curtis. 4to. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1880.

A magnificent exhibition of the poet laureate.

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