close" upon us even sooner than they do. It is not well that in childhood "the world" should be "too much with us," but that in later life we should be able to look back at least on a time when belief entailed neither doubt nor fear. And the authoress of " Skyrach" has taken care that the imaginations of her little readers should not be directed in a useless or harmful channel. Its moral is well summed up in the concluding sentence-"All things that are should trust the Good Power which gave them one happy life."

1. A Protestant's Tribute of Respect to the Memory of Monseigneur Affré, late Archbishop of Paris. By James Taplin. Second Edition. LondonE. T. Whitfield.

2. Injustice rebuked, Ignorance exposed, and Truth vindicated, in reply to the unwarrantable and unchristian Attacks of the Rev. Edward Dewhurst, &c. By James Taplin. London-E. T. Whitfield.

IN these two little tracts, Mr. Taplin, who is set for the defence of the gospel in the island of Jersey, approves himself, as a minister of Jesus Christ, catholic in spirit, zealous for truth, and fearless in rebuking offensive bigotry.

History of the Puritans in England and the Pilgrim Fathers. Pp. 508. London-Nelson.

THIS volume in neatness and cheapness rivals Mr. Bohn's celebrated monthly volumes. The historian of the Puritans is Rev. W. H. Stowell, the Professor of Theology at Rotheram College-of the Pilgrims, Mr. Daniel Wilson. Both have performed their work fairly and well. The volume should be placed in every Nonconformist vestry library which does not possess the more costly works of Neal, Brook and Young. The publisher announces as a sequel, a History of the English Nonconformists, with Farewell Sermons of the Ejected Ministers.

1. Israel in Egypt, an Oratorio, composed by George Frederick Handel. Edited, with a Piano-forte Accompaniment, adapted from the Score, by Sir Henry R. Bishop. No. I.

2. Acis and Galatea, &c. No. I.

THE Messrs. D'Almaine are entitled to the approbation of all lovers of music, for the excellent edition they are now publishing of Handel's Works. Sixteen well-engraved pages of the best music, edited by Sir Henry Bishop, for sixpence, is good news for the music-loving artizans of Lancashire.

PERIODICALS.

The North-British Review, No. XXII.-The reviewer returns to Morell's Philosophy of Religion. He is greatly disconcerted at the freedom with which Mr. Morell sets aside the popular dogmatic theology, and especially at the various slights he has put on the orthodox doctrine of the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures. The dogmatic theology which finds favour in North Britain and with our reviewer, is the hard revolting Calvinism which happily is now seldom encountered in England. On the subject of Inspiration, he refuses to recede an inch from the ground taken by orthodox theologians of old. This is his statement:

"We have no expectation of any new discovery in this department of theological or biblical science, nor have we any leaning towards new interpretations of what are commonly regarded as the proof passages upon the subject. That holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost; that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God; that the Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of Isaiah the prophet; that God spake by the mouth of his holy prophets since the world began, these and the like formulæ, of so frequent occurrence in the word

of God, we take in their plain and full literal significancy, as expressive of a fact which, explain it as we may, we are to receive upon the testimony of God himself,that the entire authorship of the Bible is, in the strictest sense, to be ascribed to Him."

Unfortunately for his readers, the reviewer does not explain what he regards as "the plain and full literal significancy" of "the formula" of inspiration which he quotes. It appears, however, that he is quite dissatisfied with other people's views. He quarrels with Mr. Morell for the representations he has given of the orthodox doctrine of plenary or verbal inspiration; he resents the application of the term "mechanical" to it; and he disclaims the advocacy of a distinct commission for a distinct impress of Deity on each book of Scripture. He thinks Dr. Dick was injudicious in his attempt to distinguish the kinds and degrees of inspiration in the Scriptures, "ranging between mere oversight and actual direct verbal suggestion." After all, it is somewhat startling to find the reviewer admitting that there are "plain proofs of human faculties and feelings having been concerned in the composition of every line of Scripture." By some mysterious agency, he considers plenary inspiration as quite consistent with the undisturbed and active personality of the sacred writers. In inspiring the sacred penmen, God did not, he says, employ a a trumpet, a voice, a pen, a hand, but minds, souls and hearts. In short, as represented by our reviewer, the orthodox doctrine of inspiration is as pure a piece of self-contradiction as the Athanasian symbol is of the doctrine of the Trinity.

On another topic we find ourselves a little more in harmony with the reviewer. He asks, Are the materials of the science of theology fixed or variable? Is the appeal to be made to the Scriptures, or, as Mr. Morell argues, to a certain common feeling or common sense, floating from age to age among the élite of the Catholic Christian community? In this latter supposition the reviewer finds a close resemblance to Mr. Newman's popish doctrine of development; and he goes on to say,

"The spirit of Mr. Morell is wide as the poles asunder from that of Mr. Newman, and has far more of our sympathy. But we cannot conceal our alarm when we find a writer on the side of what bears the aspect of high spirituality, avowing the very views which, in the hands of a thinker of another caste-as devout, we believe, and greatly more learned-are made to minister to one of the most subtle and plausible forms which the Protean genius of Popery has ever even in our day assumed."

There follows a very interesting article on Swift and his Biographers, perhaps somewhat too apologetic for the eccentric and snarling Dean, but well entitled to a careful reading by every student of English literature. This is the critic's summing up:

"When it is remembered that through Swift's whole course a mysterious disease interrupted all the enjoyments and all the business of life, and more or less affected his mental health,-when it is remembered that the good which he did rests on no doubtful or erring testimony, but even yet exists in the benevolent institutions which he founded,-when it is remembered that the capricious cruelty imputed to him in domestic life, so far from being proved, is really irreconcilable with all the known facts of the case-we think our readers will concur with us in the feeling long ago expressed by Pope: 'My sincere love for this valuable, indeed incomparable man, will accompany him through life, and pursue his memory were I to live one hundred lives, as many of his works will live, which are absolutely original, unequalled, unexampled.'

599

The Quarterly Review, No. CLXIX.-The current No. has several agreeable and interesting articles. It opens with an account of Sir John Herschel's Astronomical Observations at the Cape. The reviewer publishes, for the first time in England, the inscription on the sandstone obelisk erected at Feldhausen, as a record of the site of Sir John Herschel's Reflector. The fact that it was erected by friends after his departure from the Cape, shews that his social qualities command as much esteem as his talents do admiration. It is 4 B

VOL. V.

pleasant to read his declaration in reference to his stay at the Cape, that he has "a thousand grateful recollections of years spent in agreeable society, cheerful occupation and unalloyed happiness." This is the inscription:

HERE STOOD FROM MDCCCXXXIV TO MDCCCXXXVIII

THE REFLECTING TELESCOPE OF SIR JOHN HERSCHEL, BARONET:
WHO DURING A RESIDENCE OF FOUR YEARS IN THIS COLONY
CONTRIBUTED AS LARGELY BY HIS BENEVOLENT EXERTIONS

TO THE CAUSE OF EDUCATION AND HUMANITY

AS BY HIS EMINENT TALENTS

TO THE DISCOVERY OF SCIENTIFIC TRUTH.

We must also quote the reviewer's description of Herschel's narrative: "Here we have the actual record of sleepless nights, and abundant proof of the toil of busy days; we have before us the clear-sighted patient observer stationed on his little gallery at the tube of his telescope, whence he so oft outwatched the Bear,' struggling against fatigue and sleep; we have the mechanist of his own observatory, the optician and constructor of his own mirrors; the artist of his own illustrations; the computer who co-ordinated and reduced all the multifarious results of the campaign; and lastly, the philosopher who with consummate address has unfolded, in clear and unambiguous terms, the conclusions deducible from the whole. And if we are sometimes tempted to wish that some meaner hand had been found to work out the mechanical details of calculation, or to form those laborious star-maps of the densely populous regions of the sky which we have adverted to as displaying an effort of patience and care truly admirable, we are checked by reflecting upon the important lesson which it teaches, that in every branch of human acquirement, toil is the only fair and sure condition of fame; that in the sweat of our brow the fruits of knowledge are to be gathered in, as well as those which the earth yields to our material wants; that the unflinching struggle of the mind against the tedium and disgust which operations of detail, or merely mechanical, often inspire, does really fortify the character, and give weight to the decisions of the judgment."

The reviewer of Beattie's Life of Campbell has, perhaps unconsciously, been swayed by political prejudice, and has given undue prominence to the faults and weaknesses of the author of "The Pleasures of Hope." There follows a charming article on Chess, which every one who understands the game will read with great delight, and which will inspire every reader unacquainted with Chess with the desire to learn it.

There is an article on the Marriage Law and Mr. Wortley's Bill, written in the hard dogmatic spirit of Puseyism. The reviewer of course contends that the marriage of a man with the sister of his deceased wife is forbidden by Scripture and by the judgment of the universal Church. The voice of the Jewish Scriptures on this subject is of very doubtful import, and the reviewer resolutely keeps out of view all the difficulties that affect his argument from Scripture. Happily, the time is passed when the progress of either science or legislation can be arrested by an appeal to a doubtful text of Scripture, or by the decrees of ecclesiastical councils. It would be a strange anomaly in the history of the human race, if a nation far advanced in civilization were to bind itself down to strict conformity to the institutions of a semi-barbarous race, such as the Jews clearly were in the days of Moses. Let this important subject be fairly and fully discussed. If the present law is on the whole serviceable to the morals and domestic happiness of the community, let it continue on the Statute-book. If, on the other hand, it leads to unhappiness or crime if it unnecessarily makes any considerable number of persons violators of the law, and, in the eyes of a portion of the community, social outcasts -let it be at once repealed, whatever may be the voice of the Jewish Scriptures or the interpretations of Church councils.

Sir Charles Lyell's Second Travels in America are discussed, in Art. 6, justly and kindly. The book offers much that must be repugnant to the taste and principles of a Quarterly Reviewer of the old school; and it is no insig

nificant token of the progress we have made, that such a work should have received in this High-church organ a favourable verdict. The reviewer acknowledges that England is receiving from America, in the barter of the products of intellect, "some valuable returns in the writings of her Prescotts, Irvings, Bancrofts, Channings." The reviewer accounts for the Unitarianism of America as a reaction against the Calvinism of the Puritan pilgrims. The passage deserves attention.

"Calvinism is every where the legitimate parent of Unitarianism. It has been so in Calvin's own city, in Geneva; it has been so in England; it has been so in America. The process is simple, and, if slow, direct. The human mind, directly it subsides from that high-wrought agony of belief which trembles before and submissively adores the Calvinistic Deity, can no longer endure the presumption which has thus harshly defined and, as it were, materialized the Divine counsels; which has hardened into rigid clear dogma, all which must be unfathomable mystery. It becomes impatient of all circumspection of the spiritual nature as of the moral attributes of the Godhead. All other dogmas now appear as purely of human invention as those intolerable dogmas relating to predestination, election, the five points, with their hideous consequences. Calvinism has already snapped asunder the long chain of traditionary theology, and contemptuously cast aside its links. No restraint remains; the old doctrinal system of older Christianity is broken up. In truth, the one leading thought throughout that school of powerful, eloquent, and in justice we cannot but add, deeply devotional American writers-Channing, Dewey, Norton-is the abnegation of Calvinism. This is the key to all their doctrinal system; without this they cannot be fairly judged, or addressed with any hope of success.'

That Unitarianism is thoroughly opposed to Calvinism, is most true. But the natural reaction from Calvinism we believe to be infidelity. Of this, Unitarianism is more frequently the cure than the preventive. In Scotland, where there is the maximum of Calvinism, there is the minimum of Unitarianism; but it accords with the experience of those who have penetrated below the surface of Scottish opinions, that there is a large amount of infidelity. The reviewer's theory will not account for the history of Unitarianism in England in all its parts. The outbreak of Unitarianism in the Church of England at the close of the 17th and the early portions of the 18th centuries, cannot be regarded as a mere reaction against Calvinism. There are many other things in this article we would gladly quote if space permitted. We can only find room for some remarks on Dr. Dewey, whom the reviewer styles "a writer of a very high order, of the school of Channing," but in some respects his superior.

"Dr. Dewey wants perhaps some of that almost passionate earnestness, that copious flow, that melting tenderness, that carries away the reader of Dr. Channing; but he is a more keen observer of human nature, writes more directly to what we will call the rational conscience, has with almost equal command of vigorous, at times nobly-sustained language, a strong and practical good sense, not often surpassed in our common literature. If suspected as a religious writer (and we may observe that whoever wishes to be acquainted with the real tenets of the American Unitarians will find in his writings the most distinct statement of them), as an ethical writer, as an expositor of the modes of moral, social, religious thought and feeling among our New-England kindred, he might be studied with great advantage."

The British Quarterly Review, No. XIX.-In noticing some of the earlier Nos. of this Review, we complained of the absence of a due portion of purely literary articles. This fault no longer exists. The No. now before us is, we think, the best that has yet appeared; and in variety of topics and the ability with which they are treated, may challenge comparison with any single number of our best periodicals. We are gratified by the high literary character of a Review originated and conducted by a Protestant Dissenting divine; and we believe that while it reflects some credit on Protestant Dissent, it will tend to imbue a portion at least of our Dissenting brethren with enlarged and

liberal feelings. We have not hesitated, in our notices of earlier Nos., to point out what we conceived to be faults; and we feel it to be now a simple act of justice to record our admiration of the literary talent and the hearty catholic spirit that pervade the British Quarterly. To Dr. Vaughan himself we should be disposed to ascribe the opening article on the Genius and Writings of Thomas Carlyle. It is spirited, yet discriminating. The passionate admirers of Mr. Carlyle may think that the praise given is very scanty; but what there is, is sincere and hearty. They will find it difficult to defend their idol from the censures of the reviewer. He recognizes in Mr. Carlyle "a more remarkable combination both of the stronger and weaker elements of our age than in any other man among us." He aims in this article to distinguish between the strength and weakness, and the good and bad, in the leading speculations of this remarkable writer. He does not ascribe to him the large amount of original thought which it is the fashion of the day to give him; but considers that his views respecting human nature, its obligations, interests and destiny, are to be found both in the old Puritan teachers and in modern writers like Hall and Chalmers. He rebukes Mr. Carlyle for his arrogance in depreciating others, and especially for the slighting tone in which he has permitted himself to speak of Christianity.

There is much good sense in the remarks of the reviewer on the way in which pulpiteers sometimes libel human nature; and the enunciation of his thoughts on this subject is an exercise of moral courage.

"Too often, our divines have seemed to forget that the Bible and Nature are from the same source. Because humanity, as now conditioned, includes much that the Bible must condemn, not a few have been too ready to assume that it can include nothing the Bible may approve. Sufficient care has not been always taken to cede to the moral nature of man the portion of worth which, according to the testimony of Revelation itself, is still reserved to it. Nor has a wise discrimination been always made between the true and false religions, disowning those elements only which have given to them their falseness. Judging from the manner in which some of our very orthodox preachers express themselves, we should suppose that they see no moral difference between the least depraved among the children of Adam and the most depraved--between Rush the murderer, and the most amiable of their own children, who does not happen to be a Christian. Of course the persons who, from negligent usage, or to give an imaginary cohesiveness to a theological system, indulge in expressions to this effect, do not really believe what they seem to teach. Their daily conversation and conduct in relation to the non-Christian members of their families and connections, furnish abundant proof to the contrary. But great mischief comes from the technical affectation of seeming to believe after this manner. Mr. Carlyle's doctrine is a revolt against this grave error. Some men will assert that there can be good of no kind in human nature apart from Christianity; and the natural reaction against this error is in the assertion that all the good really attainable by man may be attained without the least help from Christianity. The one party will see no good in human nature that has not come to it from the Gospel, and the other will see no good in the Gospel that has not come to it from human nature. The extremes of some of our theologians in this form run sadly counter to the general language of the Bible, and to the common sentiment of mankind, and give a perilous advantage to the philosophical assailant of Revelation."

Art. 5 is an unsparing exposure of the faults, affectations and follies, both literary and political, of Mr. Benjamin D'Israeli.

In Art. 7, "Philosophy and Religion," Mr. Morell, Mr. F. W. Newman and Mr. Froude, are brought together. We had marked a number of extracts for insertion in our work, but find ourselves compelled by want of room to defer them to a future No.