By CHARLES THOMAS CRUTTWELL, M. A., | fully made, by reason of the allegorical and Fellow and Tutor of Merton College, Ox-formal morality that we were authoritatively ·ford. Charles Griffin and Co. The author designs this elaborate and very careful work for students at the Universities, and for the Indian Civil Service or other advanced examinations, but hopes it will prove useful to all who are interested in the grand literature of Rome.' In an excellent introductory chapter, Mr. Cruttwell compares the rival claims of Latin with Greek literature, and remarks on the alternations of popularity which each has undergone at various times and in various nations. The almost faultless correctness' of Latin composition he regards as one reason why it has so high an educational value, and in this point, he says, ‘Latin stands alone.' Its comparatively late rise as a literature, almost or quite from considerably earlier Greek models, about the middle of the third century B.C., deprives it of much claim to a genuine originality; but what it wanted in this respect it made up in art. The 'perfection of poetry was not attained until the time of Augustus,' while prose had declined after the era of Cicero. · The first chapter gives some of the bestknown specimens of archaic Latin, as introductory to The Beginning of Roman Literature' (chap. ii.). Which of the two chief sources of both Greek and Roman composition, Religion and the Stage, was the most prolific in the genesis may be questioned. The theory of an ancient Roman ballad literature, maintained by Niebuhr, Lord Macaulay, and others, Mr. Cruttwell regards as 'not taught to seek for in them. Mr. Elsdale is use. The pastoral is a form of poetry now somewhat out of favour, or at least not of frequent The title suggests a past era and an affected style. The scenery it recalls to the mind is not that met with by the eye; and the swains and shepherdesses who move, or rather lounge in it, are so unlike the youth's and girls to be found in any farm or village, that we hardly think the poetically-named persons human. Yet the pastoral is a form of poetry not unworthy of attention and one proven.' Chapter iv., on Roman Comedy, which, more perhaps than any other, should which was always of much higher importance be realistic. Its purpose is so to depict a than Roman Tragedy, gives an excellent passage of rural life as to make the reader sketch of Plautus, Terence, and Cæcilius, the smell the hay, see the haze dancing under the chief writers of whom we have any knowl-blazing sun, and hear the twitter and song of edge in this department. The two greatest ated by the scents and sights and sounds themthe birds, with all the vivid impressions crèof Roman poets, Ennius and Lucretius, are treated with much skill and judgment, and selves; while men and women, plainly apthe much-contested claims of Virgil to be a pearing as the habitual dwellers in the scene, true poet are ably discussed, the verdict being morsel taken out of their ordinary lives, and hold discourse which may be recognized as a that he 'stands first among those epic poets yet expresses some particular thought or feelwho own a literary rather than an original ing, or both, which constitutes the purpose inspiration.' The work appears to us in every respect of high merit and usefulness, and we believe nothing at all equal to it has hitherto been published in England. of the poem. A pastoral must combine homeliness, rusticity, and poetry. In the little poem of which the title is prefixed to these remarks, Mr. Scott has gone far to accomplish this object. His characters are true denizens Studies in the Idylls. By H. ELSDALE. Henry of the countryside. The features of the landS. King and Co. Not a few will be disposed to regard Mr. Elsdale's enforced seclusion as a happy circumstance for them, in its relation to their intellectual pleasure. He has certainly done something to make possible to the uncritical reader a comprehension of Mr. Tennyson's 'Idylls' as a whole. And without such aid this process was often found to be a little difficult: (1) Owing to the fragmentary and disjointed manner in which the 'Idylls' were published; and (2) because of the distractions that arose on the attempt being faith scape amid which they dwell are clearly drawn by those incidental and disconnected references which most satisfactorily bring the picture to the imagination; and a sufficient purpose for the drawing is revealed by the conversation of a mother, son, and daughter, a lover of the daughter, and one or two subor dinate characters. The nature of the piece is not such as to afford passages for quotation in the space at our disposal, but we gladly commend it to the perusal of any readers who are disposed to study what appears to us to be a successful effort in a heretofore misused, and now neglected, form of art. giver and judges, but a compilation out of ancient Hebrew documents, begun by the very hand and continued by the successors of that Ezra who is named as having been inspired by God to perform this especial duty. We have given as clearly as we can the cutline of the argument as well as the conclusion. We would here remark that there is scarcely an argument advanced against the Mosaic authorship which in our opinion is not in itself liable to correction or inodification. But this we shall not attempt. say, taking all the circumstances into account, that they probably did not. We think Wales, with its language, religion, &c., forms a very exact analogy to the position of Israel in Goshen, and is a sufficient refutation of the assumption on this point. The compilation theory in our opinion utterly fails. Indeed, is it not morally certain that if we had had a compiler capable of such a task, we should have had many if not most of the difficulties and irregularities in the Old Testament most effectually removed, and been able to trace his skilful hand with unerring certitude through the whole of the Jewish records. We have no space left for comment upon the second volume, dealing with New Testament records. It is scarcely necessary, since the means for testing his conclusions are ready to hand in abundance. We shall only give his standpoint. That the books of the New Testament have a separate origin, he says, applies only to the first two centuries, before the canon was complete. They have an editor to whom they owe their present form. Possibly the editor or editors may have copied without alteration these twenty-seven documents, but possibly they did a great deal more, and it is to this that our author attributes all MS. variations, and the words and passages which have been proved to be inter There are two things which every candid critic must admit. (1) That the Pentateuch contains portions or fragments which undoubtedly emanated from Moses, as also fragments of much greater antiquity than Moses; (2) That the Pentateuch in its present completed form could neither be the work of Moses nor belong to Mosaic times. The external evidence for it is so slender, and the internal evidence of language and structure against it is so strong. Moses was emphatically a lawgiver and ruler, and not an historian. Besides, the history of a nation is never written during its years of wandering. Moses, no doubt, laid the foundation, but the superstructure was completed by other hands. Thus far we agree in the main with Dr. Giles. But when he comes to account for the origin of the Pentateuch and Old Testament writ-polations. All these difficulties come from ings generally, and for the irregularities as to editorial hands. To establish this, several matter and form, we differ from him alto- contested arguments are advanced: e.g., that gether. He tries to solve all the difficulties the New Testament was written wholly in by assigning the task to a compiler after the Greek; that there are few or no Hebraisms in Captivity. Surely his historical instinct has the New Testament (which few will admit); here led him [astray. How or by whom the the silence of Josephus and Philo respecting double or triple documents of the Pentateuch Christianity, &c. After these assertions he were welded into unity, has been a subject proceeds to an examination of differences, disof inquiry from the time of the French phy- crepancies, &c., in the documents themselves. sician Astruc, 1753, to the present time, but The conclusion he draws is that the New however much critics differ as to this, all Testament, as we have it, was put together in must agree that in Deuteronomy we have a the latter half of the second, century, out of different and younger narrator. The differ- the Memorials of the Apostles' and the ence is conspicuous and startling even in the 'Sayings of our Lord,' both of which are English version. Here we have a narrator named long before any mention is made of competent, at all events, to act as redactor the present gospels or their writers. The or compiler in the case of the other books. volume which we receive with so much revIn 2 Kings xxii. 8, &c., we are told that Hil- erence cannot, he contends, be reasonably kiah the priest found the book of the law in the ascribed to an earlier period than the second house of the Lord. That this was more than century, when it was impossible to trust the two tables of stone,' as Dr. Giles inter- any longer to tradition, and to the loving prets the designation (to such absurdity is he voice of the companions and followers of the driven by his unhistorical position), and apostles.' Most of these points have been so more even than Deuteronomy, is evident from recently and excellently traversed by Westthe reforms introduced by Josiah. Deute-cott and Lightfoot and Sanday, that it would ronomy alone, much less the two tables, does not fulfil the conditions of the case. Besides, can we conceive it possible that the Jewish nation should pass through the wonderful times of Samuel, David, and Solomon, without a Book of the Law in the most comprehensive sense of the word? The argument derived from the language deserves but little consideration after what we have already said. According to Dr. Giles, the Jews while in Egypt must have exchanged their own language for the Egyptian, and when they returned to Canaan must have again changed their tongue. Not necessarily, and we should be superfluous for us to recur to their discussion. The work will repay a careful perusal by an advanced student of these subjects, who seeks to become familiar with both sides of the question. Had the work been published earlier in its complete form, it would have deservedly occupied a more prominent position in the discussion of these subjects, whereas at present a great portion of it has become antiquated. Henceforth its main value will consist in furnishing comprehensive but somewhat lengthy quotations from the different authorities appealed to on controverted points. Pilate's Question, Whence art Thou?' An Essay on the Personal Claims asserted by Jesus Christ, and how to account for them. By JOHN KENNEDY, M.A., D.D. Edinburgh: David Douglas. The arguments for the supernatural character and divinity of our Lord have a convergence and congruity that is simply irresistible. Whether the method be to approach Him from without, and test His teaching and character by His history and miracles, or to begin with His claims for Himself, and by them test His history and miracles, the moral harmony is so perfect that it is a stupendous miracle—the least difficult theory of which is that He is really what Christian men have assnmed Him to be. Dr. Kennedy begins at the centre and works outwards to the circumference, without, however, any undue assumptions as to the origin or character of the Gospels. He simply takes what Christ is represented as saying about Himself, and insists that the conception thus embodied, with its minute harmozies and profound congruity, be accounted for. Having sufficiently stated the claim of Divine authority and sinlessness, as it may be gathered from the Gospels, Dr. Kennedy examines the proposed solutions of it. First, hypotheses involving conscious dishonesty; of which he demonstrates the moral contradiction as being fatal to any theory which adopts them. Secondly, hypotheses which assume that these claims originated in a later age; under which he examines the va rious chronological objections to the apostolic origin of different books of the New Testament. And, thirdly, the hypothesis that the claims said to have been asserted by Christ are original and true; showing that He alone explains the Bible. The early recognition of Christ as Divine, the Messianic claim, and the entire history and character of Christ throughout, constitute an argument from congruity, and it is conducted with singular ability, lucidity, and force. It is composed of so many lines of argument, and involves such subtle and innumerable touches of sentiment, feeling, and assumption, as well as so many essential facts; it is, moreover, so wonderfully maintained in every particular, in tone, in character, in mission, and in result, that of all arguments from final causes, it is the most unanswerable. Dr. Kennedy is calm and measured, and singularly fair in his statements. He has allowed the appeal, if not from external evidences, yet to internal evidences, and has wrought out a demonstration that we are bold to say cannot be answered by opponents, and that will to friends be an invaluable assurance for themselves and repertory for use with others. We would earnestly urge young people especially that they master the contents of this able and timely little volume. It is an admirable handbook for classes. The Beginnings of Christianity, with a View of the State of the Roman World at the Birth of Christ. By GEORGE P. FISHER, D.D., Professor of Ecclesiastical History in Yale College, &c. New York: Scribner, Armstrong, and Co. Dr. Fisher is grateful to the modern scholarship of the extreme school of Baur for the light it has directly and indirectly thrown upon the apostolic age. With the aid of it he endeavours to grasp more adequately the great problems which agitated the early Church. He After an introductory chapter of anity to the Jewish and heathen religions, remarkable power, on the relation of Christihe shows by broad and grand touches how of a universal faith, by the unifying influence the Roman Empire had prepared the advent of its jurisprudence, and the wide diffusion of the Roman and Greek languages. here, by the way, justifies a large part of Dr. Roberts's thesis on the bilingual character of Palestine, without accepting the conclusion that our Lord spoke the Greek language. had the tendency to evoke obscurely the idea He thinks that Roman law and government Buddhism might of humanity as a whole. have been here credited with having prepared the Oriental mind for this sublime concep tion. Dr. Fisher has given, in about two hundred pages of this instructive volume, a sketch of the popular religions of the Greeks and Romans, a view of the several systems tius, and of successive philosophical and of religious thought from Homer to Lucreethical ideas from the Ionian physiologists to the Stoics and Neo-Platonists. These retations and judicious remarks. The morals of views are well sustained by illustrative quothe Roman Empire and heathen society are Powerfully delineated, and the religious condition of Palestine at the time of Christ. This part of the review has been effected by other writers with greater fulness, but Dr. Fisher has touched upon almost every element of the subject with masterly hand. He has, moreover, given an estimate of the New Testament writings, their value and authenticity, with clear-headed impartiality, dealing in detail with the latest assault upon the Fourth Gospel, and on the authorship of the Acts of the Apostles, by the author of Supernatural Religion. A very interesting chapter on the water-marks' of great and high antiquity in the New Testament histories and epistles, is followed by a rapid review of the story of Christianity, of the plan of Jesus, of the rise, founding, and planting of the Christian Church. Some of the ground traversed by the author in his Supernatural Origin of Christianity' is recapitulated, but the volume as a whole covers a different area, of judgment, force of expression, and clear and is characterized by the author's sobriety and emphatic conviction of the truth (as it is in Christ Jesus. By all this modern investigation--both friendly and hostile - of a notable period of human activity, it is probable that before long we shall have a clearer conception of the various sources and currents of religious and moral thought of the first and second century than was possessed by the contemporaries of the apostles themselves, and a more vivid evidence than even they possessed of the surpassing and supreme significance of the New Creation inaugurated by God manifest in the flesh. Studies in the Philosophy of Religion and Ilistory. By A. M. FAIRBAIRN. W. Mullan and Son. the book before us deals with two separate and distinct lines of investigation, both of which are necessary branches of a science of religion, but which nevertheless are in their own nature independent of each other. By this mode of treatment we are enabled to see to some extent the limits which the subject assumes in the mind of the writer. And this disclosure will create in all thoughtful readers the desire that Mr. Fairbairn should fill up the outline which he has traced out, more or less dimly, by giving us a complete work dealing systematically with the speculative and historical elements in Theism, and connecting the development of the theistic iden with the various historical changes in the development of thought, and with the specific elements contributed by each of the principal branches of the family of mankind. Full of interesting reflection and inquiry as are the two essays on the Genesis and Development of the idea of God and on Theism and Scientific Speculation, they only (to our thinking) indicate the lines along which we should expect Mr. Fairbairn will be able to lead us. When a distinction is established between the philosophical and the religious ideas of God; when we are made to see that in the latter there are elements which are not accounted for and could never be originated by the former, we are brought face to face with a problem which is not solved by establishing the facts. To give the religious and the philosophical consciousness their respective rights, without yielding to the one what is peculiar to the other, takes us only a certain length in the evolvement of a science of re The contents of this volume are correctly described by the author as 'studies.' They are evidently the fruit of much thought and research, but they unfold problems and suggest further inquiries, rather than exhaustively occupy any distinct field of investigation. This is in a great measure due to the character of the subjects dealt with. Many scattered attempts have been made to found a 'philosophy of religion;' and a 'philosophy of history' may be almost said to have assumed a place among distinct scientific inquiries. The treatment, however, of religion scientifically, was impossible until fuller light had been thrown upon many cognate lines of inquiry than up till very lately was available. Essays on the philosophy of religion there have been in abundance; and from the transcendental point of view we have had deductive exercitations which showed the ingenuity of the philosopher, and performed marvellous feats in the way of reconciling contradictions.' These attempts have generally failed in yielding satisfactory results because they were one-sidedly speculative, neglecting the historical factors in the case, without which a science of religion is impossible. Schelling-to whom the author of this volume is evidently very largely indebted-ligion. Reconciliation must follow [separahas remained almost alone in the attempt to unite the two processes of induction and deduction; but valuable as the results attained in his Philosophy of Mythology and Philosophy of Revelation' are, they are more to be esteemed for the individual lights which his penetrative insight was able to descry, than for the systematic whole which they offer to us. Mr. Fairbairn has brought to bear on the discussion of the matters with which he deals a high degree of philosophical culture and much independence and lucidity of thought. This being the character of the work beHe is familiar with all the main lines of spec-fore us, we feel that we need make no apology ulative thought, and he is gifted at the same time with the sobriety of temper which is characteristic of the best scientific inquirers of our time. Bringing these qualities to bear upon the high matters with which a philosophy of religion must deal, he shows us the directions in which inquiry in these lines-to be profitable-must proceed in the future. To have done so much is no small preliminary' contribution to a complete science. The questions in religion which are here handled are the two essential and fundamental ones-God and Immortality; while in the philosophy of history we have a series of essays on 'The Place of the Indo-European and Semitic Races in History,' treated in their various inter-relations in civilization, in religion, and in literature and philosophy. It will be evident from this statement that tion, and the unity of our nature must not be sacrificed in order to maintain the reality of its distinct elements. We have a similar problem evolving itself in the essay on Immortality. And when we come to the more distinctively philosophic historical portion of the volume, we find a whole series of problems suggesting themselves as arising out of the treatment given to religious ideas by the different branches of the human family in their varying historical developments. for not criticising its contents more closely after the ordinary fashion. We cannot regard it as anything but an instalment, and as such we gladly welcome it. Never more than now did Christian culture stand in need of thinkers who have scaled the heights of philosophy without losing in the process the realities with which a Christian philosophy ought to deal. Mr. Fairbairn is such a thinker. Combining a high degree of metaphysical acumen with varied philosophic knowledge, he is yet inspired by the veritable genesis of Christian thought. From such a combination we are warranted in looking for much good fruit in the future. The Bible Record of Creation. True for every 6 All thoughtful biblical students will attribute a high value to this book, whether they agree with the author and accept his theory of interpretation, or not. The main object he has set before him-as the title of the work indicates-is to show how the record of creation in the early chapters of the Book of Genesis may be interpreted, without doing violence to the sacred narrative, so as to be in harmony with whatever results regarding the mode and the time of creation may be discovered for us by science. Nothing short of this will enable us to claim the Bible narrative as true for all ages, and yet how is it possible, it may be asked, to imagine such a method of interpretation? It is not, we hardly need say, by falling back on the old view put forward by Chalmers and others, of an indefinitely long period of chaos following upon the original act of creation, as described in the first verse of the first chapter, or by keeping the first verse distinct in regard to the period it indicates from the succeeding verses. Nor is it by a lopting the later view of a series of ages, during which the successive creative periods were represented as so many days, so that the narrative in Genesis is out of connection as it were with time. Each of these views has had able expositors and defendants, but Mr. Grant does not accept either. He has set forth a distinctive and original, yet when explained a sufficiently simple principle;' and he is confident that its application will suffice to meet all objections to the Bible record of a purely scientific nature that can ever be brought forward. Viewing the three first chapters of the Book of Genesis as 'The Inspired Introduction to the Inspired History of Redemption,' and the Bible as therefore an organic whole, or even an evolution of the introduction, the author proceeds to expound the idea that the order in which the creative works are recorded in the narrative was not intended to reveal the order of physical development. Science, or geology, reveals the order of succession or temporal order, but that is absolutely excluded from the designs of the Scripture record's delineation. The object of the analysis and examination of the Bible narrative which follows is to prove that this is so. The idea of the construction or erection of a home for the human family underlies the whole account and determined its form, and in order to be brief it had to be general, without details and without any description of the temporal order of the individual parts. The whole is presented in the simplest manner, and as it were in pictorial form." For the manner in which the author ingeniously applies his theory we must refer to his book. The whole merit of the work is in its detailed application, and we are convinced that the candid reader will feel grateful to the writer for the natural and simple fashion in which he leads him to see the harmony there is between Science and Revelation in that very region in which we have been most often told there is palpable contradiction. The Origin of the World according to Revelation and Science. By J. W. DAWSON, LL.D., &c. Hodder and Stoughton. This work is to be welcomed as the production of a careful and competent thinker, well versed in the various branches of scientific inquiry which bear upon the question of the origin of the world and of the human family, who has reconciled the 'revelations' of science and the Bible. He does not come to his task as a novice. Dr. Dawson is Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill University, Montreal, and has written various works on cognate subjects. Nor is this altogether a new work. It is identical in scope with Archaia,' published in 1860; but the writer says that in attempting to prepare a new edition of the former, brought up to the present condition of the subject, it was found that so much required to be rewritten as to make it a new book, and therefore he determined to give it a new name, more clearly indicating its character and purpose. There is nothing that is absolutely novel in the plan and lines of inquiry that are here followed, as may be seen from the fact that Dr. Dawson avowedly applies to the interpretation of the first chapter of the Book of Genesis the principles that were expounded by Dr. McCaul in his essay on the Mosaic record of Creation in the 'Aids to Faith.' Whether this view is the final outcome of science and criticism, we do not here discuss; but in this volume we have what may be called the ordinary 'orthodox ' view set forth with clearness and conspicuous fairness. The author does not take his stand upon any dogmatic foundations, or begin with the assumption of the truth of everything which he ought to prove in the course of his investigations. The light thrown by revelation upon origins is in some respects mysterious, but it has left traces of its influence, not only upon the Semitic, but also upon other branches of the family of mankind; and the scattered rays that may be caught up in various quarters all help to confirm the truth of the revelation in the Bible. Dr. Dawson has called special attention to the barrier of scientific fact and induction which has been lately slowly rising to stem the current of crude and rash hypothesis. Among these, he names the great discoveries as to the physical constitution and probable origin of the universe; the doctrine of the correlation and conservation of forces; the new estimates of the age of the earth; the overthrow of the doctrine of spontaneous generation; the high bodily and mental type of the earliest known man; the light which philology has thrown on the unity of language; our growing knowledge of the uniformity of the construction and other habits of primitive men, and of the condition of man in the earlier historic time; the greater completeness of our conceptions as to the phenomena of life and their relation to organizable matter-all these and various other recent aspects and results of science are brought |