proper. The enforcement of a rule specially suited to a pure and self-denying Church may be inexpedient at a time when comfort is the idol which we worship. It is plain, too, that women are entitled to a share in the offices of the Church in visiting the poor, ministering to the sick, and instructing the young: offices from which they might be in a great measure debarred now that celibacy in the clergy is not recognised as the rule, until, which is most to be desired, sisterhood shall again be formed by pious virgins, and endowed by the wealthy of the land. However, a Church where there is so much to justify the infraction of such important rules appertaining to the clergy, must needs be a Church in sackcloth; or, if not, ought to be. And it is but too plain that, with the loss of celibacy in the clergy, we have also lost the daily sacrifice, which elsewhere is retained, and which is so entirely connected with the former..... Peradventure, when the daily sacrifice is restored to us, the discretion of our clergy will lead them to judge that a life of selfdenying continence serves better to godliness than that course of life to which their inclinations may dispose them," &c. In St. Ambrose's Treatise on Holy Virginity, which follows the preface from which we have quoted, the following curious passage occurs (the date of the treatise from which it is taken being about A.D. 393): "These haughty daughters of England, who walk with outstretched neck and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, despise the degraded and wretched woman whom deceit has lured or agonizing poverty has driven from the path of virtue, think you that their virtue would be proof, if the fear of public infamy were with drawn, against the deed of sin, when now so many acts imply that the thought of sin is no stranger to their minds ?" &c. It is the pious intention of the translator that the profits of this edition should be given towards the liquidation of the debt on Great Haseley church. Hildebrand, or the Days of Queen Elizabeth. By the author of "The King's Son." 3 vols. IF in a work of fiction like the present the reader is conducted through the narrative with continued or increasing interest, nothing in the construction can be essentially wrong. To effect this, everything should be placed a little above common nature; the events more surprising than in the ordinary circumstances of life, yet at the same time natural; the characters more strongly marked and distinctly separated than we meet with in the common intercourse of society, while both characters and incidents should group around one common centre of interest. We think this has been effected by the author of the present novel. There is such a contrast of characters as gives life and spirit to the tale-as between Hildebrand and Don Felix, and between Sir Edgar and Shedlock, while a somewhat difficult task is successfully achieved of introducing a real person, and one no less than Sir Walter Raleigh, among the fictitious ones, without throwing them into shadow and indistinctness by his superior prominence and splendour. This is one of the great difficulties which the modern historical novel has introduced, and perhaps succeeded in overcoming. The character of the heroine, which is always of great effect in the plot of a novel, and which if not pleasing mars the success of the other parts, is well and delicately drawn. As regards another personage of foremost interest, we mean Donna Inez, we do not ask how it was that Hildebrand never recognised her under Rafaele, (though we did from the the assumed garb and name of Don first,) because such disguises and dramatic allowances as that have been granted from time immemorial, and which are impenetrable only to the person who ought to see through them the clearest; but the only doubt in our minds is, whether we are quite satisfied with the melancholy termination of her history; whether her great devotion, her pure disinterested love to Hildebrand, her noble courage and generous relinquishment of everything in fame and fortune that is dear to woman for his sake, did not deserve a happier fate. We do not know how it was to be achieved amid the surrounding difficulties of the plot; but that is the author's business, not ours: however, we must say that it is the only one point in the whole web of fiction that we are not entirely satisfied with; and we grant that, when in real or fabulous life two ladies are equally in love with one gentleman, and as that gentleman has not a duality of person to bestow on his fair admirers, it is extremely difficult to bring the matter to a satisfactory conclusion; unless, indeed, a third steps in to cut the knot which cannot be untied. We are obliged, for want of space, to pass over any particular detail of the other personages, which appear to conduct and vary the story; but there is nothing in the design and execution of any part but what is very creditable to the author's talents. We think in the next edition that some little improvement might be made in softening down the sudden surprises and, as it were, abrupt starts in the narrative, and making it flow a little more evenly; but these are slight observations, and we must conclude by observing that any of our readers will be well repaid by themselves following the course of a narrative which we have not time to detail, but on parts of which we have made a few scattered observations. Researches on Light. By Robert Hunt. THIS work contains an examination of all the phenomena connected with the chemical and molecular changes produced by the influence of the solar rays, and also embraces all the known photographic processes and new discoveries in the art: indeed it is the first history of photography that has been published. It is executed with great knowledge of the subject, and is full of interest. The plan of it is as follows: After an introductory chapter on the progress of the inquiry, previous to the discoveries of Mr. F. Talbot and Mr. Daguerre, and on the decomposition of light by the prism, the influence of the solar rays is considered on metallic compound bodies with reference to their photographic application, as silver, gold, platinum, mercury, &c. then on vegetable substances and on the colour of flowers. In the second part is considered the influence of the solar rays on vital organisation, and on simple inorganic bodies; on the germination of seeds, and the aeration of plants. The second section of this part is particularly curious, consisting of four chapters on phosphorism-influence of the solar rays on chemical combination-magnetory power of the solar rays-and thermography; an examination of all the phenomena connected with the supposed radiation of light in absolute darkness. Such is a rude outline of the substance of this work; but it conveys no idea of the vastness of curious philosophical reasoning to be found in it; among which will be remarked the discovery of a new elementary principle, which the author calls energia, (vide p. 269,) and which he would add as a fourth to the three imponderable elements-light, heat, and electricity. Light, heat, and energia are the three principles, or the modifications of an elementary first principle, detected in the solar rays; the first acting on the organs of vision, and enabling us to distinguish external objects, and giving colour to all. The second is that principle which regulates the solid, liquid, or gaseous states of matter, and which maintains this planet in the condition which is essential to the well-being of its inhabitants; and the third, energia, that power which effects all the changes, whether chemical or molecular, which are constantly in progress. It is that agent which is for ever quickening all the elements of growth, and maintaining the conditions of a healthful vitality; and it is no less energetically employed in the processes of corruption, which, indeed, are no other than the necessary changes of matter in its progress from one state of organization to another. "There are several questions," the author observes, "of the greatest importance which remain for the investigation of philosophers; among them the most important are the following:-is energia absorbed by material bodies? Does it influence their internal constitution? Is it radiated from bodies in the dark? or at all concerned in the production of any of those changes which have been attributed to dark rays? and lastly, is this power at all connected with the production of the phenomena of electricity?" At present the question is involved in much obscurity, but if we regard the elements of the solar rays as distinct in character, though mostly connected in action, until we can prove them to be identical, we shall free it from a large amount of that complexity which has been thrown around it, by endeavouring to reconcile the chemical action of this energia with the undulating theory of light, &c. The Thornton Romances. The Early English Metrical Romances of Perceval, Isumbras, Eglamour, and Degrevante. Selected from MSS. at Lincoln and Cambridge. Edited by James Orchard Halliwell, Esq. F.R.S. &c. (Printed for the Camden Society.) THIS is a very seasonable and interesting volume; and the Members of the Camden Society are under no trifling obligation to Mr. Halliwell, for the pains he has taken in so carefully preparing for the press the four curious and valuable Romances which it contains. When read as we have read them, beside a cheerful fire, while the nightwind howled without, these curious specimens of old-world poesy carry back the fancy to those by-gone days when the visits of the professed minstrel served to wile away the dreary hours of winter, with "gest, and tale, and song; "and al maner mynistralsie that any man kan specifye;" and when his recitals of "Deeds of arms and of amour" warmed his hearers far more than the mead cup or wine flagon which circulated through the lofty hall, or even the huge brands which blazed and sparkled on the wide-spread hearth. Of these Romances, that of Perceval is of European interest, the first authorship of which is attributed to Kyot or Guiot of Provence, whose work no longer exists, except in the Norman version of Chrestien de Troyes, who again is accused by Wolfram von Eschenbach, the author of the German Perceval, of spoiling the story. Goerres and other German critics regard the original Perceval as the commencement, and not the least important portion, of that mystic cycle of romance on the subject of the "Holy Graal," of which Titurel forms the very centre or jewel; and which is completed by the Lohengrin. With this, however, the English Romance has little to do, for in it the great work of Chrestien (upwards of 20,000 lines) is reduced to about one tenth of the size, while the story is oc casionally related with an approach to 'Sythen his hede gan he off hafe; This Romance is printed from the Thornton MS. at Lincoln; as is also the second Romance, Sir Isumbras, of which an edition was printed by Copland and reprinted by Mr. Utterson. The next Romance, Sir Eglamour, elegantly analysed by the late George Ellis in his "Early English Metrical Romances," is here printed from a Cambridge manuscript. This is the case also with Sir Degrevant, the fourth and last, and in many respects most interesting, in the collection. It is certainly unequalled for the glimpses which it affords us of the manners of the times, and the state of society at the period when it was written. Had the work been published with miniated pictures, such as perhaps existed in some copies of the MSS. of this Romance, it could scarcely have afforded us such vivid pictures of the costume, architecture, cookery, and domestic arrangements, such minute touches of every-day life, as are furnished by the musical and frequently alliterative verses of the author. As a representation of manners, a sketch of society, it is really unrivalled; while it exhibits no few traces of the hand of an artist Surely and the feeling of a poet. there is something exquisitely pathetic in the following confession of his love, which Degrevant makes to his 'squire, and in his avowal that he loved the lady "for herself alane." "Melydore ys hure name, What bot is that y ley? I wolde aske them na mare Mr. Halliwell has appended to this volume Glossarial Notes upon such words as he deemed to stand in need of explanation, and in his Introduction has entered at some length into the history of each Romance, its connexion with similar productions in the early literature of the Continent, and its bearing upon the general history of fiction. The book is, in our opinion, by far the best edited that Mr. Halli. well has yet put forth; and we most cordially congratulate that gentleman and the Camden Society upon their respective shares, in making this valuable addition to our stores of Early English Literature. THE HOMILIES OF THE ANGLO-SAXON CHURCH. The Homilies of Elfric, with an English Translation. By Benjamin Thorpe, Esq., F.S.A. Parts I., II., ÌIÍ., IV., and V. (Printed for the Elfric Society.) 8vo. pp. 624. WE can recommend this work to our readers, not more for its theologi⚫ cal interest-although that is most considerable, from the illustration which it affords of the state, views, doctrine, and discipline of the AngloSaxon Church-than for its importance in illustrating the philology of our noble Germanic tongue, which was spoken by a Jeremy Taylor no less than a Shakspere, by a Barrow as well as a Milton. or such a translation, though unattended by a commentary, will be regarded with interest by the members of each of the great communities into whtch the Christian world is divided." Many readers will, we suspect, object that the language of the translation is too Latinized. But, on the other hand, Mr. Thorpe would plead, and probably with success, that he was unable to introduce many purely Saxon expressions, not because they had changed their original meaning, but because they are now so generally regarded as vulgarisms that their introduction would have been prejudicial to his work by giving an air of vulgarity to his translation, quite at variance with the scholar-like character of the Saxon original. Mr. Thorpe pronounces his work "the firstfruit of the praiseworthy attempt of the Elfric Society to rescue from oblivion the literary remains of our forefathers," and adds that it was selected for the earliest publicaits valuable matter and the manner in tion of the society, on account both of which it is conveyed.” fully justifies such selection; and we when the "incurious disregard" with trust that the day is at length arrived which Sir James Macintosh charged the English nation "as having hitherto treated the literary monuments of their forefathers," has given way to a laudable anxiety for their preservation; and that such support will be given to station and circumstances enable them the Elfric Society by those whose to do so, that the great objects for which the society was instituted may form Collection of the Literary Rebe realized, by the publication of a uniof that great desideratum, a complete mains of the Anglo-Saxons,-in short, CORPUS ANGLO-Saxonum. We can bear witness that the book The volume contains no fewer than forty Homilies, which form the first portion of the well-known manuscript in the Public Library at Cambridge, which has been supposed to be Ælfric's autograph copy. The author compiler of these Sermones Catholici, (for his share in the work is not now to be ascertained) was, in Mr. Thorpe's opinion, not Ælfric the Archbishop of Canterbury, but Elfric Archbishop of York, who presided over that see from the year 1023 to 1051; and, as in the A work before us, the editor has furnished us with a faithful transcript of what he believes to be the most complete manuscript, "and a conscientiously correct translation of that transcript, as literal as his acquaintance with the language and his notions of good taste permitted," he is fully justified in giving expression to the "hope, that Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs, and Ancient Customs, from the Fourteenth Century. By James Orchard Halliwell, Esq. F.R.S. &c. &c. Part I. A-Ann. Part II. Ann-B. 8vo. pp. 128. MR. Halliwell has now for some years made his name exceedingly conspicuous in antiquarian literature, not only by his appearance in most of the associations intended for its advancement, either as an actual or an honorary member, but more particularly in the title-pages of various publications, which must be accounted, even by himself, rather by their number than their importance. He has now attempted a far more laborious task, one indeed which, even if unsuccessful, might, from its magnitude, be deemed to merit the praise allowed to great failures : magnis tamen excidit ausis. And if the extent of the undertaking be great, so also in many respects is its difficulty; nor is his boldness lessened by the circumstance that a similar work was commenced only a few years ago by two very eminent and experienced antiquaries,* and abandoned at an early stage of its progress. The present work is put forward to supply the alleged deficiency of any "general dictionary of the early English language." A glossary to Chaucer has long existed, and more erudite glossaries have been since supplied by Sir Frederic Madden and others to various ancient writers. Still more recently, the Camden Society has obliged the world with the first portion of an invaluable work, Mr. Way's edition of the Promptorium Parvulorum. There are various Provincial glossaries for the relics of local dialects, and a "General Dictionary of Provincialisms" has been compiled by Mr. William Holloway, in an octavo volume. From these sources, and from his own reading, Mr. Halliwell has undertaken to compile his General Dictionary of the early-English language, intended, it may be presumed, to combine the obsolete words of all periods and all dialects. Such a work, executed by a philologist determined to develope the history of the language, might, if performed with intelligence and judgment, be of the highest value: a dictionary which *Boucher's Glossary of Archaic and Provincial Words: edited by the Rev. Joseph Hunter and Joseph Stevenson, esq. Parts I. and II. This class of books is now very numerous; as may be seen in the Bibliographical List of them published by Mr. Russell Smith. gave as it were the descent and genealogy of our language, might be compared to a magnificent temple, perfect in all its parts; Mr. Halliwell's Dictionary we can only assimilate to a tessellated pavement, or a patchwork counterpane. Contenting himself with putting together an alphabet of archaisms, provincialisms, technicalisms, and solecisms, with a sprinkling of "proverbs" and "customs," he performs a task not very different to those wherein he has previously distinguished himself, whilst editing his multifarious succession of libretti, and, it must be feared, as totally deficient of any definite design or substantial conclusion. The plan proposed in the selection of words, and their treatment, is as follows: "It is intended, within as moderate a compass as possible, to give a large collection of those obsolete and provincial words which are most likely to be useful, without extending the size and cost of the work by etymological or other similar researches; and while care is taken to establish, as far as possible, the correct meanings of the words, to avoid discussion on subjects that would be interesting only to the professed etymologist. It is not of course proposed to exclude etymology, but merely to render it subservient in the way of explanation, and not allow it to occupy too much space." Here, it will be seen, are announced four characteristics for the Dictionary: 1. a moderate compass, size, cost, and space; 2. general utility; 3. accuracy; 4. a little gentle dalliance with etymology. These stipulations are on the whole unexceptionable; but we are much disposed to conclude that a more faithful devotion to the charms of Etymology would have conduced to the accomplishment of all the other ends proposed, to greater accuracy, greater utility, and greater economy of space and cost. The plain fact is, that Mr. Halliwell is the victim of a very extraordinary passion. Whilst sparing of his attentions to the decent and orderly nymph, Etymology, he is absolutely enamoured of a very ugly and decrepid old witch, named Cacography, every wrinkle of whose haggard face he is desirous to immortalise on a perpetual canvas; though, with the usual capriciousness of her sex and age, the old lady says she is deter |